Hot Like Summer
by moose-girl6
Summary: AU - all muggles. Lily has just finished her first year at university and has a whole three month summer ahead of her. After getting through the insanity of her sister's wedding, she has to find something to do with all this new free time. Luckily, a friend has a rather convenient suggestion.
1. Chapter 1 - The Wedding

Chapter 1

The summer was hot and dry so far, bringing with it hose-pipe bans and longing thoughts of the beach. The sun, as expected, made anyone even remotely British rush outside and set up camp in the sun before returning inside half an hour later with third degree burns.  
The change of colour showed the change of season. In spring the world turned green and the plants became colours, in autumn the leaves turn gently to golden brown, in summer lawns turned slowly brown and people turned slowly red.

School did not finished until July so those unlucky enough to still be in compulsory education or who had foolishly decided to stay in sixth-form or college were left staring at the sunny days passing them by from the inside of classrooms. Those sitting GCSEs and A-levels cursed the inevitability of sunshine during exam seasons and prayed that it would last for longer than their first afternoon of freedom like it usually did. University students were somewhat luckier. The spate of sunshine had begun in April, just around Easter time when the intensive revision period began but had held out far longer than the end of exams.

The students of the University of Manchester were particularly pleased about this, none more-so than Lily Evans. Although she commuted into classes from the suburbs of Manchester, she still relished any opportunity to see the city, and when it's pouring with rain as it usually is – it _is_ the rainiest city in the UK after all – it's difficult to see the sights. In the last week that all of her friends had had in halls before returning home, she had been the unofficial tour guide, taking them to places that had been unrealistic to visit in the cold winter months. Parks and cafes and tiny terrifying bars that only the best Manchurian knows about became the centre of their universe.

They stayed out late in small bars hidden down side streets and woke up on the floor of each other's bedrooms and slowly put together the pieces of the night before. For most of them this was one last week of fun and drunken hilarity before going home for the summer and getting to see their families. For Lily this was the last chance to be properly free for the summer, before she had to be at home with no uni friends to escape to.

She had sent CVs out into the world and the world had given nothing back so she had quietly accepted that she was not meant to escape from the dreary world of suburbia and instead would have to smile when her mum suggested an afternoon spent in Waitrose and would have to be polite and gracious when her relatives told her she had grown over the school year and how she should visit more, conveniently forgetting that Lily was still living at home and that all they had to do was pop round if they wanted to see her.

But she would bear it because it was summer and it was supposed to be a wonderful time of freedom and adventure and if you're miserable over summer then that's just your own fault. Even though she wasn't about to experience adventure. Or freedom. Her sister was home too, so freedom really was out of the question. She was home for the last time too, spending the weeks leading up to her wedding with her parents and sister, so she was going to be unbearably emotional. Tearing up at every last thing – last time we go food shopping as a family! Last time we take Molly to the vets as a family! Last time Lily threatens to hurt me as a family! – and then thinking Lily cold for doing nothing more than rolling her eyes. Petunia hadn't quite seemed to realise that marriage is the joining of two families, not the dramatic dissolving of them to make way for a new one. But of course, for Petunia, it was that dramatic. She had had, what she described as, a whirlwind romance and was now finally settling down with the man who had whisked her off her feet. In rational terms, this meant that she had met someone at the office she worked at, they had dated for two years and had decided that, since his parents wouldn't like it if they moved in together without first getting married, they should have a large celebration of their union with meringue dresses and pastel colours and highly pollenated flowers everywhere. Lily thought this was a ridiculous way to go about it. Marriage was wonderful and a wedding is a very happy occasion, but it did not call for quite so many tantrums and folders of swatches in her opinion.

But that was Petunia for you. She was lovely when she wanted to be, the obedient daughter with her parents, the modest blushing bride with sales people and not completely awful to Lily in public, but when something was not going perfectly her way then she could bring out the big eyes swimming with tears, the wrinkled nose, the lip-bite, the convincing hesitation, and she could save any unsavoury situation. Lily wouldn't say her sister was manipulative, but she would say that her parents and the people that surrounded Petunia sometimes had a strong resemblance to putty. It was a good thing her fiancée, Vernon, was such a strong stout man. He was the only person Lily had ever seen to flat out refuse Petunia something. They did later come to a compromise on the issue, whether or not to have seat covers with tassels or without, but it was a good half an hour later and Petunia did not exactly glow as they set out the details of the agreement. All in all, Lily thought Vernon was going to be quite good for her. He was not totally dreadful. He was totally boring and quite rude to Lily sometimes, but Lily thought that was fair enough, given that he was about to be promoted to being the youngest vice president of Gunnings Drills that there had ever been and she was a mere mortal being.

A week before the wedding Lily was informed she was to be a bridesmaid.

"I'm sorry?" she said, her fork half-way to her mouth. She was certain she had misheard. She must have been eating her shepherd's pie with more concentration than she thought.

"I said I need you be a bridesmaid." Petunia huffed, looking at her with pursed lips as though trying to imagine Lily in lemon coloured thing she had would have to wear.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked. She wondered whether this was an elaborate joke or whether Petunia was having some sort of fit. She half expected her to laugh and shout 'gotcha!' But she didn't. She sat examining Lily, waiting for a response.

"We'll have to see if you can fit into Maisie's dress." Petunia mused. Her brow was furrowed as if she were contemplating the solution to world poverty.

"Okay?" Lily found herself saying. At this point it seemed wiser just to accept it. "What happened to Maisie?" she asked, hoping that she had merely had a prior engagement and hadn't been bumped off because she had suddenly sprouted spots or gained weight.

"Her Gran died. The funeral's the same day as the wedding." Petunia said is so briskly and so without emotion that Lily wondered if she had heard what had come out of her mouth.

"Well is she okay?" Lily asked.

"Yes, yes she's fine. Well Maisie is, her Gran isn't obviously. But it does mean that we are one bridesmaid down and everyone else I could ask are all arriving too late for the rehearsal. So you'll have to do." Lily looked at her mum who raised her eyebrows at her in a look that said, 'don't start anything.' It was a look Lily was very used to ignoring.

"Thanks Tuney, I'm honoured." Lily tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice more for her mother's sake than Petunia's. She wasn't sure her mum would be able to deal with two feuding daughters as well as one insane one.

"Good. I'll have you try it on later." She said briskly, returning her attention to her plate of celery and raw carrots. She was maintaining a strict diet up until the wedding. Lily thought it was half the reason she was acting so batty. The other half was that she was just naturally batty.

Lily did end up fitting into Maisie's dress, luckily. She was a size smaller than her, so Petunia told her, but for some reason the dress seemed to fit just right. It was knee length and strapless and chiffon and a shade of yellow that didn't clash too badly with Lily's hair. Petunia of course commented on that smugly. Lily just smiled, glad that she wasn't going to be the one to give her another headache.

Lily went to unzip the dress but Petunia stopped her.

"Wait! You have to make sure the headpiece will look alright too." She said as she plunged a hand into a paper bag and pulled out a shiny glittering contraption that Lily really didn't want to have to wrap around her head. It might come alive mid-ceremony and attack them all. But the light in Petunia's eyes and the smile on her lips made her keep quiet and bend slightly so her sister could arrange it just how she wanted on the redhead's head.

Petunia spun her around to face the mirror and Lily saw that it didn't look as much like a robot alien as she thought it would. It was a pretty hairband with jewels that matched those on the belt that Petunia was tugging around her waist. All in all, she didn't make an awful bridesmaid.

She turned and smiled at Petunia. They didn't always get on, Lily was far too sarcastic about things which were far too important to Petunia, but sometimes they could act like normal sisters. Petunia wasn't massively affectionate so when her bony arms wrapped themselves around Lily she let them and hugged her back. Then her sister moved away and started pulling the accessories of her.

She had originally not been a bridesmaid because her mum hadn't pushed Petunia to make her one. Lily wasn't awfully upset about it, it meant less faffing about with Petunia's dress and less flapping about making sure she didn't need anything, but surprisingly her dad had put up quite a bit of fuss.

"But you're sisters! How can these friends of yours be more important than your sister!" he had said, standing to his full, although sometimes comically not all that large, height and pacing around the living room.

Petunia was sat on the sofa with crossed arms and legs and pursed lips. Lily was sitting beside her and they were both wearing the same disbelieving expression. It wasn't that hard to believe though really, their dad not understanding sibling relationships. He was an only child himself. But it was ridiculous that he thought that his daughters wanted Lily to be a bridesmaid. He knew them and he knew that they had grown apart since Lily was eleven and had won a scholarship to the private school up the road. Petunia thought she had turned all posh and pretentious and had refused to talk to her more than necessary. Lily had decided it wasn't worth the effort to persuade her otherwise.

So why their dad was insisting they were the best of friends and that Petunia would be heartbroken not to have Lily in her wedding was beyond either of them.

"But dad, Lily doesn't want to be a bridesmaid." Petunia said calmly. Lily could tell she was holding back a dramatic sigh. She was probably saving it for later.

"Yeah, and Petunia has so many friends that she wants involved and I'm already involved enough, I mean I am her sister," she said, trying not to look too bitter about it, "and she's already asked me to sing something at the wedding. She doesn't need to make an extra effort to involve me to remind me I'll always be part of her life." Lily reasoned. She tried not to vomit on her own sickliness. Petunia shuffled about next to her, avoiding looking at her.

Their dad frowned at them both in turn and then seeing how casual they were about it, how they were quite happy to sit there and reason through why it was ridiculous for Lily to be a bridesmaid, he shook his head and took a deep breath.

"If I had a brother," he said and both the girls restrained themselves from rolling their eyes. He always brought this up when they weren't getting along and by now they knew the 'if I had a brother' speech by heart. "If I had a brother," he started again, "I would treasure him. He would be my best friend. He would have been my best man at my wedding, he would have been your favourite uncle and I would have appreciated him! Not like you two who don't seem to understand that you are the only sisters you are ever going to have and you act as if you're dispensable! You're sisters! You should appreciate each other." He finished with a snort of breath

Lily and Petunia pointedly looked away from each other. It was a tad bit ironic that in a moment when they were being told to act more like sisters they were united in not wanting to do so.

Their dad sighed. "Fine. If you don't want your sister in your wedding then don't have her there. But you'll regret it." He said dramatically enough that Lily and Petunia both put their hands over their mouths to stop themselves laughing, but their mum who was sitting out of their dad's sight, who had burst into silent giggles.

"What are you two laughing at?" he asked as Lily started shaking with laughter. Their mum let out a loud peel of laughter and their dad turned around in what Lily presumed was disbelief. It said something about their relationship that he only had to look at her to calm down and join in with her laughter.

It was good that Lily's parents were able to keep each other laughing because in the week leading up to Petunia's wedding there weren't a lot of moments that naturally turned to laughter. On the Tuesday Petunia thought that her veil had a hole in it. There was a good half an hour of wailing before Lily pointed out that the thing that Petunia thought was a hole was actually just the gap in the lace edging where it would clip onto her hair. On Wednesday they found out that Petunia's maid of honour was only going to be able to make it up on the morning of the wedding. Petunia screamed and wailed, the first two of her bridesmaids to arrive swarmed around her and Lily came out of her room expecting there to be blood and mayhem and instead found Petunia sitting on the sofa with a cup of strong sweet tea with Miranda using a magazine to fan her and Andrea was on the phone talking calmly and determinedly to who Lily later figured out was Carolyn, the maid of honour.

"Yes, we understand that you are unable to get train tickets before Friday, but is there any other way for you to travel up here? Yes, yes I understand that Carolyn, but this is your best friend's wedding." Andrea's voice was so patronising Lily had a hard time not taking the phone away and smacking her. She spoke slowly and clearly and Lily could pretty much hear Carolyn sighing. Lily had met her a couple of times and she actually seemed a reasonably nice person, which had been a big surprise considering she was Petunia's friend.

"Carolyn, Carolyn, Carrie, really is that necessary? If you can make it up here on time then that would be wonderful," Andrea smiled sweetly whilst kicking a shoebox across the room, "But of course if it is _really_ impossible, then maybe you could try extra hard to make up for it? Well I don't know, I think that's the sort of thing you should have come up with."

Lily rolled her eyes, asked if Petunia needed anything, was shooed out of the way by Miranda and slinked off to hide in the kitchen with her mum and a large pot of tea.

The wedding couldn't have come sooner. Well, no, it could have come before all of the drama and panic that only ended in giving Lily a migraine. But when it finally came it was not at all as bad as all the pre-wedding drama would have indicated.

Petunia looked lovely, Carolyn arrived early enough to help her get dressed and to fuss about her as she sat waiting for the wedding car to arrive. Lily took a back seat and let the other bridesmaids deal with Petunia's wedding morning panics. They came every ten minutes and usually ended in another layer of lipstick and a puff of perfume. But then they were at the church and Petunia was smiling her way down the aisle and Lily was at the end of a long trail of bridesmaids following behind. She managed not to cry as Petunia and Vernon exchanged vows, but on glancing at her parents she saw that they were making good use of a large box of tissues her mother had managed to fit into her handbag.

At the reception Lily found a lovely spot next to a table full of champagne where she watched the guests fill in. She had been placed next to her parents on the seating chart and that was perfectly fine with her. Vernon had a few cousins that Petunia had teased her about and Lily half expected to find herself at a table full of stout moustached men. The food was wonderful, the speeches were tamely sweet and the first dance was a short awkward affair. Luckily for Lily by the time it came for her to sing almost everyone had one eye on the door to the kitchen, so nobody really noticed how dull the song was that Petunia had asked her to sing.

Petunia came up to her just before the end of the night, slightly tipsy and with the biggest smile on her face that Lily had ever seen.

"Lily," she said, putting her hands on Lily's shoulders slightly harder than a sober person would have, and in a more friendly fashion than a sober Petunia would have.

"Yes Tuney?" Lily smiled at her sister, gripping her waist to stop her toppling over.

"You – you might not – " she started and then looked confused, shook her head and looked up at the disco ball above them.

"Tuney, are you alright?" Lily asked, laughing at her drunk sister.

"Fine. I'm fine." She said grinning. "You however," she said and her face took on a more sombre expression, "You are not as bad as I thought you were." Her voice dropped and she spoke in what she evidently thought was a whisper.

"Right. Thanks for that Tuney." Lily said dryly.

"It's alright Lily. It's alright. And hey!" she swung an arm out, narrowly missing knocking a hat off one of her new in-laws as they walked past, "Maybe this time next year we'll all be at your wedding!" She finished with a manic look on her face.

Lily looked at her carefully, unsure where all this good-will was coming from, but then Petunia burst out laughing.

"That's funny. That's very funny," She said giggling, "because for you to get married, you'd have to - have to -" She couldn't hardly finish her sentence because she was giggling so much.

"Have a boyfriend?" Lily said somewhat sadly.

Petunia's eyes became very bright and she smiled like a mad-woman, "Yes!" she cried before shrieking with laughter.

Lily smiled to herself. It was good to know she could still make her sister laugh. Petunia tottered off to find Vernon and Lily moved over to the table full of nibbles and champagne. Food and alcohol. The best companion for the single little sister. It's not that she was always the bridesmaid and never the bride, this _was_ the first wedding she had ever actually been to and she was only nineteen, but there was something quite sad about seeing your sister so secure of marital happiness without even being in reach of your own.

She smiled and waved as Petunia and Vernon left in a shower of rice. They would be jetting off to Crete, to a hotel that Vernon had decided on and had refused to tell Petunia about. It was supposed to be a surprise, but she had such trouble with not knowing what to pack he ended up telling her everything. Maybe he wasn't so immune to her after all.

The night had started to get cold and Lily's mum and dad were leaving. She climbed into the backseat of the car and let her eyes settle on nothing as the dark road slipped by outside. She went up to bed almost as soon as she was in the house, pulling her pajamas on faster than should really be possible. It was nice being able to change out of the fancy dress, but it was also nice knowing that she had something fancy to put on if she ever wanted it. It wasn't that bad a dress after all. She put it into a clothes bag and hung it on the side of her wardrobe.

The day was over and she could relax. No more panicking, no more Petunia, no more noise, no more excitement.

Nothing.

For the entire summer.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Phone Calls

Chapter 2

The days after Petunia's wedding had passed so far with cool breezes, TV marathons, cold cups of tea and a lack of purpose. Early June might not be the most exciting time of the year for some people, but for Lily Evans it was positively stifling with boredom. Her sister's wedding happened two weeks ago and now the house was devoid of purpose and, sometimes it seemed to Lily, life.

Her father would wake up in the morning and go to work, her mother would wake up in the morning and make breakfast for her husband and work through a to-do list as long the size of the Magna Carta. Lily would wake up and wonder how long she could get away with not getting up.

The only thing she really had to get up for was the shows she had recorded on TV and to check her e-mails and her facebook. And even those she could check from her phone as she lay in bed. If she was really quiet and her mum wasn't pottering about upstairs she could get away with lying in bed until half past eleven. Last Wednesday she had managed to stay undetected until two o'clock, owing to a coffee morning she had just missed going to. Her mum had closed the front door just as she was waking up. It was a wonderful morning. She had gotten through four chapters of her book, bought and listened to the new Royal Blood album and spent an hour fiddling away with her ukulele. All from the comfort of her own bed. Who said her summer was without adventure?

Her uni friends apparently. All of them seemed to be having far too much fun. Grace was in France, au-pairing for three young children. It helped that she was studying French at university and had two younger siblings herself, but she would often send messages asking how one gets glue out of clothes or how to get children to go to bed on time after spending the day high on sugar. As a younger sibling Lily found it funny. As a student partaking in a degree of Education with the intention of teaching one day, it was somewhat terrifying. When she was most panicky about her bad decision making she would turn to Marlene. Wonderful Marlene. Disgustingly rich Marlene. Marlene whose family had a beach house in Cornwall. Marlene who had offered Lily to come and stay in the beach house for the summer. Marlene who didn't understand that a beach house with two bedrooms is not the best place to have as a base for wild nights out. Lovely Marlene. She would often post pictures of herself and her friend James, who was also in uni with them and whose family also had a beach house quite close to Marlene's. They looked so much cooler than she ever could, sitting on the beach with the sunset in the background, shades on, barbeque lit.

The closest Lily got a beach barbeque was when her dad accidentally set the smoke alarm off by trying to cook the beef in the grill with the door closed, instead of in the oven. In his defence, the grill was directly above the oven and they looked exactly the same as each other. To his detriment they had had to stick a label on it saying 'grill' because he had done it so many times.

She had thought about taking Marlene up on her offer, but Cornwall was so far away from Manchester. The train tickets wouldn't be cheap. And she had toyed with the idea of getting a job. She didn't technically need one, but extra money would never be a bad thing. She was still trying to make what was left of her student loan last.

It was decided for her in quite a nice way really, or at least that's what Marlene said. She rang her up one evening and told her that she had found her a job that she would love. Lily laughed initially but when Marlene told her how much it would pay she stopped laughing and started listening.

Marlene's friend James' parents were always jetting off places and were really only free to be at the beach house on odd weekends. This would be fine if they didn't have two children under the age of twelve. James could keep an eye on them, only his parents weren't completely happy with leaving him with them while his friends were down, as they would be over the next three weeks. And so, Marlene said quite smugly, Mr and Mrs Potter were looking for a live-in babysitter. Someone who would be okay with watching the little two whenever they weren't there. They had asked around first, not wanting to go straight to posting an advert online, and Marlene had immediately thought of Lily.

"It's not bad Lil, and I wouldn't usually offer you up for menial jobs, but I know how you need experience with children for that internship you want to do next year. Come on, you have to. It's the perfect solution to your dead summer problem."

Lily let Marlene talk, rather than say anything. She thought that if she opened her mouth she would start reasoning her way out of it and actually, she really didn't want to do that. It _did_ sound quite lovely. And it's not like the children were _that_ young. They were eight and eleven and if they were anything like how Marlene made James sound, they were going to be wonderful charming angels. A faint whisper of 'too good to be true' sparkled in the back of her mind, but she shut it out.

"Yes okay." She found herself saying to Marlene.

There was silence on the other end. She thought for a second Marlene had put the phone down.

"Wait, seriously?" Marlene sounded worryingly unbelieving.

"Yes seriously. It does seem like the perfect solution. And it's not menial at all, it sounds like a good challenge. And you're right, I do need experience with children." Lily said, repeating Marlene's logic back to her.

"I never thought you would say yes." She said honestly.

Lily laughed, "Maybe it's a sign of how much I don't want to spend the rest of my summer here." She said only a little bit bitterly.

"Well that's great!" Marlene's voice had suddenly perked up and become quite a lot louder.

"You don't have to sound quite so enthusiastic about how rubbish it is here Marl, I already know." Lily said.

"What? Oh no, it's just that I didn't really believe you when you said yes." She said, clearly thinking that explained everything, even though she was still talking in that loud, perky voice.

"Well I did. Do you need my CV or something?" Lily asked, suddenly thinking about the fact that it was Marlene suggesting the job not the people that actually had the opening.

"Um, yeah that might be useful. Look, I'll pass your number along to Mrs P. and she'll give you a ring in the week if she's still interested." Marlene's voice became distracted.

"Right. Okay, thanks Marl." Lily answered, not sure Marlene was even paying attention.

"It's alright. And hey, even if this doesn't work out, you can still come down and visit! You could get a coach or something instead. They're way cheaper than the trains." Lily could hear noises in the background, the sound of someone laughing and the clatter of crockery. It was probably dinnertime.

"Yeah maybe." Lily said, hoping Marlene could sense her rolling her eyes. Nothing was cheap when you wanted to go that far.

"Right, so I'll ring you again and I'll give them your number and I have to go sorry, but good chatting." The noises in the background became louder and Lily was sure she heard the sound of a children which was weird because Marlene hated anything under twenty years old.

"Yeah, see you soon Marl."

"Byee" she signed off cheerfully.

Lily put the phone down, smiling. She had missed Marlene more than she thought.

She did get a phone call in the week and it was from about the job, but it wasn't from the Potter she had expected.

She answered her phone on the third ring after managing to extract it from the tiny pocket of her jeans. Why women's clothes always had such small pockets she would never know.

"Hello?" she answered, hopeful at the sight of an unknown number.

"Hi." A male voice said. "Lily?" It asked.

"Yes?" she said, unsure who she could be talking to.

"Hi it's James." The voice said.

Lily thought for a moment then said, "Potter?"

"Yes." He said almost immediately.

"Oh hi! Sorry, I didn't realise you had my number." She said more enthusiastically, but still somewhat confusedly.

"Well I didn't, but Marley gave it to me." His spoke in a haltering staccato sort of way.

"Oh right." Lily said, trying to ignore how awkward this conversation was turning out to be, "Um, is there is a reason you called?" She asked after a significantly uncomfortable amount of time.

"Oh yes, of course sorry," he said very quickly, almost stumbling over himself to answer her, "I'm calling on behalf of my mother." The fact that his words were so formal seemed strange to Lily. The few times they had met before he had spoken more quickly, his words often running into each other, and he hadn't sounded like he was reading from a script like he did now.

"Your mother?" she said, confused for a second, then something clicked, "Oh yes of course, oh gosh, sorry I had a dumb moment. Of course, your mum. Marlene told me she had offered me up." She gave a short laugh, which probably just sounded like heavy breathing through the phone.

"Yes, she did." He paused before continuing and Lily thought she heard the rustling of papers. Maybe he did have a script then. "My mother wanted me to ask you a few questions before setting anything in stone."

"Why did she want you to ask me questions?" Lily asked, then on realising that that could have sounded she added quickly, "Not that there's anything wrong with you but it just seems a bit of a weird delegation. Sorry." She tagged an apology onto the end of her sentence although she wasn't massively sure what she was apologising for. Being a bumbling idiot probably.

"No it is a bit weird. I, um, I think she wanted me to talk to you to make sure that Marley hadn't just dropped you in it without you knowing anything. I mean," he gave a breathy laugh, "if some random is going to ring you up about a job for the summer, better it be a random who you sort of know than a random who is the middle-aged, quite serious, mother of someone you sort of know."

Lily chuckled. She had forgotten that he could be funny. Not that she saw much of that, he was usually a bit quiet around her, but Marlene was often telling stories which involved him being funny. And charming. And dashing. Come to think of it, most of the stories Marlene told about him made him sound amazing. Maybe Marlene fancied him or something.

"Yes, I think so." Lily smiled into the phone, "but don't worry, Marlene did tell me. Truth be told I thought that maybe she was making it up."

"It probably says something that we both thought she was lying." James muttered.

"Yeah, that we're both excellent judges of character." Lily heard James laugh and felt pleased that she could make her Marlene's funny friend laugh. "So what questions do I need to answer?" She prompted after a couple of seconds.

"What? Oh yeah, I forgot about those." He sounded more relaxed now, not speaking in the stiff interviewer voice he had been before.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so witty I can charm anyone off topic." Lily said sarcastically, "But carry on. If you can."

She heard him laugh again before he said, "Right yes, well, how long would you be able to work for us?"

"I'm free all summer." She said, not really trying to hide any bitterness. She thought that at this point there was little point in trying to pretend like she wasn't a sad fool with nothing better to do than travel the length of the country just to do some babysitting.

"No better offers?" He asked, and it was a second before Lily realised he was teasing.

"No, 'fraid not. I'm too poor to travel but just wealthy enough not to have to get a job. The worst sort of position to be in. Well, no not the worst," she continued, some part of her realising that she was babbling, but the rest of her completely unable to do anything to stop it, "I'm sure there are worse, but I'm so sick of the inside of my house I would quite happily swap it for all of them right now." She gave a short laugh, hating her mouth and brain and the stupid relationship between them.

"Okay. And do you have any experience with children?" he said, not reacting to the drivel that was so happily slipping out of her mouth.

"Oh loads. No wait, that's a lie. I just lied to you. Good grief, what's wrong with me?" she spoke quickly, certain she sounded as flustered as she felt. She took a deep breath and started her answer again, more slowly this time, "No, not really, but I need to get some because I'm trying to get this internship for next summer as part of my course and if it turns out I'm awful with little 'uns then I should probably know before I apply. That sounds like a really cold reason to want to watch your siblings, but at least I'm being honest." She finished, resolving to look into tongue removal surgery. Or a lobotomy. Or both.

But James didn't sound like he minded because he moved onto the next question without comment.

"Would you mind living in the same space where you work?"

The question seemed like a simple one, but Lily's twisted mind suddenly drew up images of other professions where that would not be so appropriate. Doctors living in operating theatre using the operating table as a dinner table, a teacher living in a school using Bunsen burners to cook on, a zoo keeper curling up at night next to a Bengal tiger.

"Lily?" James' voice cut through her insanity. What was wrong with her today? She wasn't usually this batty.

"Yes, sorry," she said, wanting to be quick to reassure him that she wasn't ga-ga, "I think it's fine, and especially when in charge of children it's probably more beneficial. I mean, it's more appropriate than it would be other jobs, anyway." She added without thinking and then scrunched up her face and made a mental note to slap herself later.

"Sorry?"

"You know, like if a doctor lived in a hospital it would be a bit weird, but a nanny having a room in the same house as the children they're looking after isn't that weird." She said, her voice coming out slowly as if even it didn't want to be saying the words her brain supplied it.

James laughed though, so maybe she wasn't a complete nutcase.

"Right, yeah that makes more sense than what I thought you were on about."

"What did you think I was on about?" she asked, curious as to whether everyone's minds gave them weird images at inappropriate times.

"Oh I thought you meant having children in the living space for a second. Sorry, probably just going nuts." He added quickly.

"Well that makes two of us don't worry." Lily said dryly. Sadly this was the best attempt she could make at consoling him. "I'm sorry," she said suddenly, "this is probably the worst phone interview ever. I think I'm sounding completely nuts." She sighed into the phone.

"That's okay Lily," James didn't sound too negative about it, "It would probably be worse if you weren't. We're a bit nutty ourselves, you'll fit right in."

Lily laughed. "Any more questions Mr. Potter?" she asked, glad that they had come back to reasonable place in the conversation where she didn't mind smiling.

"Just one actually," he said casually, "How would you like to be reimbursed for you travel expenses, in cash or cheque?"

"Wait," Lily said, her brain not quite catching up to her ears, "Is this still hypothetical? Because that didn't sound much like a hypothetical question."

"No, it's not," he laughed in response to her excited tone, "I do need to know though, or else you'll have to pay for it yourself." He added.

"So you want me?" she asked, hopefully.

"Of course." He said.

"Well then. Whatever's easiest will be just fine." Lily beamed to herself. "What date do you want me?"

"As soon as possible really. School finishes on the twentieth of July, so that's next Thursday. Mum wanted you down a day or two before Alice and Jon get here, so would Tuesday be okay for you?"

"Wonderful." Lily said, not caring if she sounded pathetically enthusiastic.

"Great. Well you have my number now, just ring when you're about an hour away and tell me where you'll be getting into and one of us will come and pick you up."

"Okay, great. I'll see you next week then." He could probably hear her fist-pumping and happy dancing all the way from Cornwall.

"See you." He said before hanging up.

"Bye!" Lily said before realising he had hung up.

She wasn't sure why exactly she had turned into a basket case during that phone call, she was just glad that James hadn't thought it was a bad thing. She grinned and shoved her phone back into her pocket. Now she just had to let her parents know.

The grin did not last for long into that conversation. Her dad only took about a minute to bring up the fact that she was their only child left at home. Her mum pursed her lips and looked watery eyed. Lily rolled her eyes at both of them and reminded them that she had seen them every day for the past nineteen years, two months was not going to drive the memory of them from her mind. They did eventually consent (not that she needed it: she was nineteen for goodness sake! She was an adult, she could drink and drive and have sex and get married and vote and join the army, but her parents still thought she needed their permission to get a job. Ridiculous) but only after promises of a bi-weekly phone call and a completely tea-total summer. The fact that she had been tea-total for two years now didn't seem to make much difference to their need to hear her say the words.

"I won't drink, I won't disappoint you, I won't die. Is that good enough?" She asked, completely unable to take them seriously. Her mum pursed her lips. Her dad sighed.

She smiled at them both and hugged them. She knew they'd give in eventually. They always did in the end.

**Hello there. Lovely to see you. I hope you're doing well. This author note isn't really about anything, I just wanted to say hello and thank you for reading. So I've done one, let's do the other.**

**Thank you for reading!**

**Xx**

**Lots of love **

**Moose-girl6**

**(I know it's a ridiculous name. I don't know where it came from either. I'm not even remotely moose shaped.) **


	3. Chapter 3 - The Arrival

Chapter 3

The few days that Lily had to pack for her summer job were more stress-filled than she thought they would be. She spent most of Saturday and Sunday packing, trying to fit two months' worth of things into one suitcase, one rucksack and one handbag. She didn't try too hard; she was sure Marlene would let her borrow clothes if it came to that. What she did do instead was try to avoid her mum's attempts at helping her.

She kept flittering in and out of Lily's room with piles of clean clothes and with odds and ends she thought might be helpful: blankets and spare socks and three packets of new toothbrushes and a supersized box of tampons and moisturiser and washing detergent and whatever else from around the house that could possibly be thought of as even a little bit necessary. Lily tactfully went off to make a cup of tea every time the pile got too big to not start packing it. Then when her mum was distracted she would sneak back upstairs and distribute the pile back to where her mum had got them all from.

By the end of Sunday her suitcase was full to bursting with clothes and her rucksack was about to explode books and cosmetics across the room and all of her important things, like her purse and her coach tickets and her laptop, were in her handbag. At the last minute she had added her guitar to the pile. She should probably find some time to practise over the next few months.

She had already managed to get her parents to agree to it all, they had even paid for her tickets there, although they had insisted that she take the coach. They said it was safer, which Lily knew was not in any way true, and that it was cheaper, which was technically true, but not by enough to warrant the fuss they kicked up. They kept reminding her that she had promised to call and be sensible. Lily resisted rolling her eyes many times on Monday, wondering if Petunia had had to deal with all this pre-pining when she moved out. Probably not. She was far too practical to be of any worry to authority figures.

Lily on the other hand, could be quite a worry. When she was nine she had played such an elaborate joke on her teacher that had led to him needing to take a week off for health reasons and to this day nobody is really sure how she did it, not even her friends who had acted as her accomplices. Her parents had been more confused than angry, so she had pretty much completely gotten away with it. She still brought it up at dinner parties. Mainly because the only dinner parties she ever attended were compulsory ones with Petunia and Vernon, and Petunia hated the idea of being related to someone with that much trouble in their blood.

But that hadn't been a one-off thing, the prank of '04. Lily had been the sort of child who was clever enough to do well in class but hyperactive enough to not want to pay attention in class.

Even at the private school she had gotten into she managed to rack up more detentions than merits and was well known for being the sort of child that you never put at the back of the classroom.

Of course, that usually meant she got away with being in the middle, the true centre of trouble as all trouble-makers know. Nobody expects anything from the middle of the classroom so when someone's throwing paper balls at the teacher's back from somewhere beyond the front row, the initial suspect is usually the wrong one. Lily cottoned onto that fairly quickly. Only in music did she sit at the back, letting the teacher teach things she already knew, trying not to drift off to sleep. Music annoyed her most, mainly for its lost potential as a brilliant class for the sake of those who were not musical.

By year ten, when her and Marlene were firm friends, she had accomplished nothing as grand as the prank of '04, but felt that perhaps GCSE or AS and A-level years weren't the best time to do anything about it. So she arranged a huge end of term Christmas prank using to their full extent, her resourcefulness and the rest of the year tens.

On the seventeen of December, all fifty of the year tens at St Helga High for Girls stayed back after school, convening on the playing fields behind the changing rooms, just out of sight of the main building, to receive their orders from their ring-leaders, fifteen-year-old Lily and Marlene. A message had been passed around all day that there was to be a meeting of sorts and it would involve a huge Christmas prank, so they were all very excitable.

Lily checked who was there using a huge register her and Marlene and some of their other friends had made at lunch time, and then told them what they wanted to do. They had decided that since it was an all-girl school they would utilise the advantages gender isolation gave them at school. This involved a great deal of giggling and fuss when Lily explained the idea to everyone. They would be using certain items to adorn the school just in time for Christmas.

Namely, the unusually large supply of tampons from the nurse's store-room. Enough for the two-thousand girls at the school for the first few months of the Winter term.

Earlier that day, at around half past two, a particular red-headed year ten had gotten sudden and truly dreadful cramps. She had made such a fuss that her English teacher, a stiff uncomfortable man called Mr. Clarke, had ordered her to be taken straight to the nurse. Her loyal friend, a Ms. McKinnon, had accompanied her. By the time the bell rang for the end of school at three o'clock one thousand tampons had come into their possession and subsequently been stored in the most god-forsaken building on site; the hockey changing rooms that sat out at the edge of the playing fields.

The other girls had slowly arrived in twos and threes, all giggling at the sight of the giant packs cotton wool monstrosities they had all had to suffer with at some point.

Lily explained as best she could without laughing what they were for. The girls remained on school property for a further thirty minutes and then all of them trickled away. The school was big enough, with enough after school groups, for a large group of pupils to leave at half three without it being too noticeable.

The next morning, before the rest of the school arrived and before any of the teachers' cars pulled in, all of the year tens were there. Lily opened one of the ground floor windows and Marlene snuck in through an English classroom and opened one of the outer doors for them, before going back to lock the door to the English classroom and climb out the window again to be let in by a conventional entrance.  
They spread out across the school and collected the tampons they had deposited last night, twenty each, in nooks and crannies all about the school building where the cleaners would never think to look. And then Lily distributed cellotape, glue and glitter. Some of the girls were quite mild, using their tools to make snowflakes on the floor and walls of the corridors, but some were wickedly inventive, sticking them under teachers' desks as gluey glitter traps, taping them to board markers and door handles, a group of girls even snuck into the head-teacher's office and used them as part of a cheery Christmas message using the red glittery a little too liberally.

Lily for her part used her twenty from the nurse's office and the twenty she had bought herself to decorate the music classroom. She covered them each with glitter and then hung them by their strings, one by one, to a tile on the ceiling. Then she emptied her glitter pots in a trail leading to the Music Hall where, on stage, Marlene had somehow managed to fix tampons to the large, theatre standard, lights and had then pointed them all at the conductor's podium which was centre stage and now covered in so much glue it was shining. She had then let Lily use her glitter to write in large gluey letters,

_Merry Christmas_

_X_

Marlene had come up with the 'X' bit as a signature instead of words. It saved glitter, seemed a bit more formal and was a clue as to who was the culprit.

They had told everyone to make sure to be off school grounds by the time the first teacher turned up, and so were a little annoyed that they were almost caught by Ms Joy, the head of the music department. They hadn't turned the lights on so they were able to hide in amongst the chairs as she came in, following the glitter trail. As she made her way to the stage, they made their way out the door. They ran carefully to the toilets which were, thankfully, unlocked, and stayed there until the bell was about to ring for registration.

The staff all day seemed to be caught between finding it hysterical, needing to tell someone off about it and having their guard up ready for tampons to spring out at them at any second. The whole school found the whole thing hilarious, with everyone bursting out laughing whenever another tampon was discovered. All day, wherever Lily looked people were talking about it, laughing and telling stories about the different ways their lessons had been disrupted by it. Lily found it particularly funny in English when, on finding that someone had attached a tampon to each of his pens, Mr. Clarke dropped his pen holder on the floor, screamed and threw the pen he had been holding across the room.

It was lucky really, that they were such sensible girls. It can be assumed that if something similar had happened at a boys' school there would be penises everywhere. As it was, there was only one penis made out of glue and glitter and it was only spotted when most of the snowflake it was hidden inside of had been washed away. Due to the harmless nature of the prank and the fact that there was nothing rude or offensive written with the resources, there was no search for perpetrators.

Most of the school had figured out that it was the year tens and had decided that they were complete heroes. Not only had they disrupted the last day of school spectacularly, they had also gotten attacked what was most hated at a girls' school; awful generic sanitary products.

People had tried to pull pranks before, but they had always been the spur of the moment, terribly clichéd ones that never really do anything but get people in trouble. This was a prank of epic proportions that seemed likely to launch a tradition. Everyone was in awe of the year tens and all of the year tens were in awe of Lily and Marlene. Trouble-makers in chief, they took at least sixty percent of the glory, letting the other girls tell each other how they had launched a daring raid on the nurse's supplies and how they had mobilised the rest of their year. Nobody said explicitly to the teachers that it was Lily and Marlene and the rest of their year who had started it all, but they seemed to be aware that the two had been involved somehow. They showed this understanding in different ways, with Mr. Clarke setting them extra homework, and with Ms. Joy coming up to Lily at break-time and offering her the forty tampons that had been on her ceiling back to her. Lily politely declined.

That was the highlight of Lily's miscreant career, and she would often reflect back on it with Marlene. It was one of the glues of their friendship by this point. That time when they stuck it to the man by sticking the tampons to the school.

Lily wasn't entirely sure why she thought she had any right to be looking after children, let alone teaching them, when she had been such a pest. Surely there was some rule that you had to fall under a certain level of troublemaking to be allowed to have authority with children. She had decided that maybe she wouldn't bring up any of her dark deeds with the young Potters. At least not right away anyway.

She got on the coach at seven o clock in the morning at the coach station in Manchester and arrived at the coach station at St. Ives at half past seven in the evening. The twelve hour journey hadn't been that much longer than a train journey would have been, although it was a tad bit more claustrophobic. Lily had had a window seat and unfortunately someone had had the aisle seat right next to her. This person was a large elderly lady who wanted to do nothing but have someone listen to her complain.

Lily sighed with more relief than she really should have felt she finally had to get off at Birmingham to change coaches. She had half an hour before her second coach would arrive so she bought herself an overpriced sandwich from the little WH Smiths and a large iced coffee from Starbucks in the station. She stood near the door with her luggage, letting the constant opening and closing of it blow cool wind onto her as she sipped her drink.

As they had slowly made their way down south, the weather seemed to be gradually getting better. It had been a nice enough day when the coach had left Manchester, the sun had been out and the blue sky had only been dotted with one or two clouds, but as each mile passed the sun seemed to shine brighter and hotter and the sky's blue went from gentle to shocking.  
There was something about freedom that made the world just that much brighter and better. The spot by the door where Lily stood was, at that moment, the most wonderful place in the world. It wasn't that she wanted to get away from her parents, of course she didn't, she loved them to pieces, but she did desperately want to go somewhere where people knew her as a person rather than a child and had new things to talk about. And if that somewhere was near the beach and had nicer weather than up north then that was just bonus.

Her second coach appeared and she dragged her things towards it whilst trying not to spill her drink. The driver stowed her bag and suitcase and she climbed on and settled into her seat near the back. She had another window seat, but this coach was emptier and nobody came and sat beside her. She set an alarm on her phone and let herself doze against the window for a couple of hours.

And then they were there.

She realised as she walked into the station that she hadn't rung James as he had said she should. To be fair, how was she supposed to know when they were an hour away? She'd been asleep. But she had texted Marlene saying when she had left so she presumed that that would have pretty much the same effect.

And she was right.

She had glanced around the station and upon not seeing anyone remotely familiar she had pulled out her phone and rung James.

His voice was loud in her ear and sounded more enthusiastic than last time.

"Lily! Hi. I can see you, I'm here at the station." He said quickly.

"What? Really? But I didn't-" Lily spun around, expecting his scruffy tuft of hair to stand out from the crowd at any second.

"Marlene told me what time you'd be in." He said just as she spotted him at the far side standing just outside a small café.

"Oh good, I thought she might. Is she here too?" She asked, holding her phone to her head with her shoulder as she swung her rucksack onto her other shoulder.

"Yeah, she's here. Couldn't have stopped her if I wanted to." He added and Lily chuckled at how bitter he sounded.

"Well that's Marlene though, you have to love the quirks." She laughed as she saw him roll his eyes just a few metres in front of her, before hanging up the phone.

"Yeah, but does she have to have so many?" He asked, reaching out to take her suitcase.

She let him. He rolled it inside the café to a table by the window where Marlene's big brown eyes were watching them both. She stood up from the little metal table and pulled Lily into a hug, getting bashed by Lily's bag as it slid off her shoulder.

"Oh my days Lily, I have been lost without you." Was the first thing she said, keeping her in the hug longer than was natural or comfortable.

"Hi Marl, I missed you." Lily said.

She leant on her as her bag swung on her arm, threatening to take her down. Still Marlene didn't let go. Lily smiled so widely she felt like her cheeks were about to split in two.

"Ahem." James' voice cut through their embrace and they pulled back to see him grinning at them, with a bemused expression.

"Oh sorry James." Marlene said, stepping back from Lily and practically launching herself at him.

Lily let her bag slide to the floor and let herself laugh loudly as James groaned.

"It's good to see you haven't changed Marl." Lily said as Marlene let James go. He sat down in one of the metal chairs, rubbing his neck.

Marlene grinned at Lily and then flopped down into the chair opposite James'.

Lily picked her bag up and sat it down right-side up before perching herself on the cold metal.

"Tea?" James offered, looking from Marlene to Lily.

"Yes please, as long as you're paying though, I forgot my purse." Marlene said beaming.

James rolled his eyes again and looked at Lily who shook her head.

"I'm fine thanks." She smiled at him. He nodded and went to the counter.

"So." Lily turned to Marlene, expectantly.

"So," Marlene said sitting up straight, "we're waiting here for James' friends who should be here in the next half hour, and then we're going back home."

"Oh right. Anyone I'd know?" Lily asked casually, trying not to grin as Marlene turned slightly red.

"Oh just Sirius, you know. There's two others as well, but I don't think you know them." Marlene spoke quickly and avoided meeting Lily's eye.

"Sirius eh?" Lily's tone had turned dirty more quickly than she thought it would, but that was just the effect of being around Marlene she supposed.

"Yes." She said firmly, then added, "I don't know what you could possibly be implying Lily."

"Who's implying what?" James said as he stepped around Lily's suitcase and set two cups of tea down on the table.

"I'm just making up for the lack of opportunity to be appropriate at home by making Marlene feel uncomfortable, it's nothing." Lily said quickly, seeing Marlene turn white at James' entrance into the conversation.

"Oh." He took a sip of his tea, before turning to look at Marlene. "You do look a bit flustered Marley."

"I'm fine." She said quickly, giving Lily a kick.

Lily laughed, "Yeah, that's her normal reaction when being teased about-"

"Lily!" Marlene cried, making Lily laugh louder and James' expression turn even more curious.

"What? What are you teasing her about? Oh come on Marley," he said when Marlene clapped a hand over Lily's mouth, "It's only me."

"Yes, that's exactly the point. It's you! You'd go blabbing and really, I embarrass myself enough I don't need you doing it for me." She said, ignoring Lily as she attempted to tug her hand away. "And Lily," she said calmly without looking at her, "you can stop licking my hand that will have no effect on me, I grew up with this prat. I'm used to having strange liquids on me."

Both and James and Lily and snorted with laughter at the same moment that Marlene realised what she had actually said.

"Oh God," she moaned, "See what I mean about embarrassing myself? And it'll be worse when the other lot get here because then there'll just be more people to mock me."

"Nah," James waved his hand and brushed it through his hair, "They're idiots enough, you'll probably be the least embarrassing person about."

"What about Lily?" Marlene pointed at her and then laughed as she turned and saw her with a wide sardonic grin and a thumbs up.

"Well, she'll be hanging about with Jon and Alice, I reckon she hasn't got _much_ hope of dignity in that. Sorry" he added to Lily, who just shrugged.

"That's alright. Anything to make Marlene not look like an idiot." She said.

"Isn't it a bit late for that?" a voice said behind her.

Lily turned around and had to stop herself from bursting out laughing again.

It was The Vomit Guy.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Vomit Guy

Chapter 4

During the first week of university Lily had stayed over in Marlene's room almost every night. Not because they missed each other or were particularly lonely, but for the simple reason that Lily didn't want to wake her parents up when she rolled in at four in the morning. She wasn't usually a party animal, but there's something about the first week of university that makes even the most mundane and modest people completely mad.  
This is because the first week of university is not just the first week of living away from home, finding your feet, getting to know your surroundings. The first week of university is the week that is the most insane, the cheapest, the most chaotic, the most stressful, the most alcohol and activity filled of the year. In short, it was freshers' week.

Marlene, although she was from not far outside Manchester, had wanted to have the full uni experience and so had opted into having the tiny room and communal bathrooms that make up the experience of living in a halls of residence.  
She had met all of her floor mates and decided that they were nice enough and had decorated her room with pictures and posters and had decided that it was homey enough and then had tried to go out with her flatmates and had realised that you should never go on a night out with people who are desperate not to be lonely.

On the first night she managed to get lost and ended up waiting at the bus stop to go back to halls at three in the morning in the rain feeling like freshers' was only going to get worse. It was luck and rain that had brought Lily to her rescue. She too had been out that night, although living at home she didn't have any people to go out with, so had instead decided to just go to a club and make a few friends.  
Obviously this didn't go very well. Nobody wants to make friends on a night out, they just want to dance and get drunk with the friends they already have. Anyone new is probably either going to offer you drugs or make you desperately uncomfortable.

So Lily, too, ended up, at three in the morning, looking to head home. She had only managed to stay out so late because she had seen someone from school, but about twenty minutes ago the school-friend had started necking some bald guy and Lily took that as her cue to leave.

And then it started to rain. She decided that at this time of night and in this rain getting a taxi was pretty much pointless, so had headed towards the bus stop. The bus that ran from town to halls stopped at two in the morning and began again at four, so there wasn't too long to wait for the first one. She ducked under the first shelter in a row of them and saw the big brown eyes of her partner in crime looking up at her.

There were lots of hugs and they both gave long whining descriptions of their awful nights and decided that the best way to wait out the night was to huddle together on the bench. As the shelter got more crowded Marlene decided the best course of action was to perch on Lily's knee and cuddle into her. It was good to have her best friend there after a shitty night out.

When the bus finally came they sat at the back, stuck their feet down to the heater and Marlene talked Lily into staying the night. It didn't take long. The rain was getting worse and it was a thirty minute walk home from Marlene's halls and Lily was hardly wearing anything that could be described as waterproof. She texted her mum and left a message on the house phone letting them know where she was.

They ran all the way from the bus to Marlene's block, holding their bags over their heads. They showered water all the way along the corridor and stood dripping outside G12 as Marlene fumbled with her keys. Her room inside was in fact quite homey. She had two lamps, which she used instead of the electric strip light, a brightly patterned bed spread and she had filled the top two of three shelves with books and personal effects. Her window looked out onto a patch of grass that was currently black and drowned with rain.

Marlene offered her a spare set of pyjamas and they changed and hung their wet things over a clothes-horse by the radiator. There was an air bed in Marlene's wardrobe but neither of them much wanted to spend the time and waste the effort setting it up when they were really only going to be asleep for so long - they both had introductory meetings the next morning – so they each grabbed one pillow and took opposite ends of the bed. They fell asleep to the sound of rain and woke only briefly at about five when the rest of Marlene's flat stumbled back in.

The next day, Lily ate breakfast at Marlene's, went home in some of Marlene's things and went to her welcome meetings and library induction and then that night came back and went out with Marlene.

And so a pattern was established.

It was on Thursday that she met the Vomit Guy.

They had been separated in Revolution - the chain bar that was usually full of chavs but tonight was doing a special offer on shots so Marlene had dragged Lily inside - when some guy had started talking to Marlene. Instinctively Lily had moved between them, but Marlene shook her head, so she let them disappear towards the dance floor. She only sort of followed them, letting them do their thing over by the DJ while she tried not to get in the way of the people at the bar. It took her about an hour to realise that they had left. It was only at about two o clock when she got her phone out to check the time that she saw she had a few missed calls from Marlene, a voicemail and three texts.

She left the club to listen to her voicemail.

"Hi! Lily! It's a-me! Marlene!" Marlene seemed to be doing a strange sort-of-impression of Mario. She stopped and then continued speaking normally, albeit a little bit drunkenly, although not so much that Lily was worried, "Um, so I have left with, with, what's- what's your name?" Lily heard the guy's voice in the background, "Yeah, with you! And we're going back to mine, so maybe find someplace else to be for a little while. I'll ring you when can come back, or if you'd rather you could just go home. Um, yeah, so I'll uh – I'll – I'll, um, I 've got to go, bye Lily." She trailed off slowly, sounding more and more distracted by the male voice.

Lily looked at her texts and saw that they increased in enthusiasm with each one.

'Think will go back with guy. Will maybs ring you.'

'OH MY DAYYS, GUy paid for taxi. WHAAAT a gent.'

'DO NOT COME BACK. GUY IS AMAZE-BALLS. NEED ROOM ALL NIGHT.'

She sighed and walked to the road to hail a taxi. It looked like she would have to go home, but halfway there she realised that she had left her key in Marlene's room. She sighed again and leant forward to tell the cabby of their new destination.

As luck would have it, someone had been really careless and left the door to Marlene's block on the latch, not quite shut enough to be safe. Good for Lily, but bad if it had been anyone with more nefarious intentions. Yet another reason why Lily was glad to not be living in halls.

She trudged down the hall to Marlene's room, really not wanting to interrupt them. She listened at the door for a minute and heard Marlene's peal of laughter and the sound of what Lily thought was probably the wardrobe door closing. She crinkled her nose and knocked the door, hoping her friend wouldn't open the door stark naked. She didn't. In fact she didn't open the door at all. Lily was left standing in the hallway for half an hour before she heard any more noise, and this time it was bed springs. She decided it was probably best not to interrupt that.

She sat down on the floor and played with her phone, going through the photos from the last couple of days. Marlene was a lover of selfies, so there were more pictures of the two of them than she ever wanted to see. There were also quite a few pictures of Marlene and her neighbour Grace who had come out with them on Tuesday and Wednesday. She was an adorable Scottish girl who had no problem chatting with Lily whilst still in a towel, fresh from the shower. They had exchanged numbers and decided to go for coffee when freshers' week was finally over. She was probably asleep now though, and they really weren't good enough friends for Lily to knock on her door at – she checked the time again and sighed, honestly Marlene, you had to pick a guy with stamina – four twenty five in the morning.

She was in the middle of seeing how many silly faces she could pull in pictures when Marlene's door was thrown open with a bang. A tall person with black hair around his face and a leather jacket clutched in one hand was standing there. He looked very pale and seemed to stagger past down the hall rather than walk. He passed Lily without looking at her. She watched him go and then stood up and pushed Marlene's door open.

"Marl, it's me, Lily. I didn't want to interrupt, but I left my keys here and- what are-" Lily spoke as she came into the room but as her eyes fell on Marlene she stopped. She was sitting on the bed with her legs out and her mouth open, covered in sick. It was soaked into her top and the sheet that was pulled across her lower half. As Lily kept looking she saw splatters of it on the wall and the floor. She even saw some on the desk chair.

"So," Lily said, not sure whether to laugh or not. The look of shock and embarrassment on Marlene's face told her that now was not the time, "Should I, I mean, do you want me to get you some clean clothes?" she asked tentatively, not really sure how to deal with the situation. The smell was starting to be awful. Marlene just nodded. "I think you should maybe shower first though." Lily said gently.

She took a step towards the bed and then thought better of it. She pulled a towel from the wardrobe and placed it beside Marlene's bed and let her stand of it. Bits of what looked like carrot fell onto the towel. She opened the door and let Marlene toddle her way down the hallway to the shower. She followed with a large towel and Marlene's shower bag. Then she came back and stripped the bed and threw the sheets into a big black bin bag before stuffing them into Marlene's washing basket. She wiped the wall and got the mop to dab at the floor. Then she re-made the bed.

By the time Marlene came back from the shower Lily had changed into pyjamas and decided that she was definitely going to have to laugh about this. Marlene stood there in a towel with a shell-shocked look on her face, wincing when Lily said where she had put the vomit covered sheets. She sat down on the bed and Lily couldn't hold it in anymore. She snorted with laughter and started giggling. Marlene turned to look at her and the empty horrified look set Lily off again as soon as she had calmed down. It was only about thirty seconds before Marlene joined in. And then they were just two teenagers giggling at five in the morning after a pretty insane night.

"What are you like, Marl?" Lily said when they were finally calm enough to speak.

"It wasn't me!" She cried, horrified, "It was him! He was- we were- you know-ing-"

"Having sex?" Lily filled in, smirking.

"Yes, that," Marlene said, "and then- then he just throws up!"

Lily started giggling again.

"It's not funny Lil," Marl whined, "He was kissing me."

This just sent Lily into hysterics.

"I've brushed my teeth about ten times now and I can still feel it. Eugh." She said slowly and then gave a shudder. Lily was still shaking with laughter.

Marlene glared at her for about a second before grinning again. "Well at least I have a story." She sighed before closing her eyes and burying her face in her hands.

"It could be worse Marl, you could have thrown up on him." Lily's attempts at reassurance were met with a glare. "Alright then, it could have been worse, it could have been someone you have to see again." Lily tried again. This time Marlene just groaned and put her head in her hands again.

"What, Marl?" Lily asked, hoping that it _wasn't_ someone she knew.

"I don't know if I won't though!" Marlene cried dramatically. Lily gave a laugh, but then stopped. She did have a valid point. What if they were on the same course?

"Don't worry about any of that now Marl, just get some sleep and we'll have a good panic about all this in the morning." Lily reassured as she reached for a pillow.

Marlene nodded and lay down. It was quarter past five already.

"Night Lil."

"Night Marl."

The panic that Lily had anticipated for the morning never came however, as when Marlene woke up it became apparent that she didn't remember very much of what had happened.

"I remember a guy with really great hair," she mumbled into her tea that Lily had so kindly brought to her in bed, a hand covering her eyes from the bright light of day, "and a leather jacket. I also remember you changing my sheets but I'm not sure why." She added. Then her face changed and she looked horrified, "I didn't wet the bed did I?"

She looked up at Lily with wide eyes and Lily, like a good friend, just laughed back.

"No, you didn't. Don't you remember?" She asked, sitting down next to her on the bed.

"Yeah, I remember the guy. What did he do though?" Marlene asked, frowning.

"Do you really not remember?" Lily asked incredulously.

"I was _really_ drunk Lil." Marlene muttered.

"You seemed alright at the time, you spoke to me clearly enough. You showered and brushed your teeth and everything." Lily's voice was full of disbelief.

"I'm just a really sentient drunk Lil, it doesn't mean I had any idea what was actually happening." Marlene whispered.

Lily laughed gently and shook her head. Maybe it was for the best that Marlene didn't remember what happened. She had been so mortified the night before, she would be even more embarrassed now. Especially, Lily thought, if she told Marlene that she had managed to snap a picture of the guy as he left Marlene's room. She had taken it to show to Marlene after to tease her about how when she had sex with a guy she was so thorough it was the guy who couldn't walk straight afterwards, but now it didn't seem to be entirely appropriate. It was still funny though. Lily laughed to herself as she watched Marlene try to drown herself in tea. Maybe she would have to bring it up again at some point, but until then she'd keep mum.

Lily had never expected the time to talk about The Vomit Guy would be while he was standing there completely unaware that he was The Vomit Guy in Marlene's drama that was her life. She decided that maybe now wasn't the time, especially considering he had turned out to be James' best friend who Marlene was always 'casually' mentioning. Lily had heard his name so many times now she felt like she already knew him. Of course, it looked like she really did know him from somewhere.

In the café, nobody seemed to notice that Marlene's newly arrived friend was having serious trouble not bursting out laughing at James' newly arrived friends. They were all talking jovially, carrying on the teasing from where it had been before they arrived; Marlene being mocked.

"I know you all think I'm a complete plonker, but for at least five minutes can you _try_ not to break my heart?" Marlene turned her big brown eyes on the Vomit Guy, apparently knowing him well enough to slip into banter without even a greeting.

"You know, McKinnon," he responded, pulling a chair out beside James, the two boys standing behind him dragging chairs over from nearby tables, "I think what you need, more than kind coddling, is loving honesty. You _are_ in fact a complete idiot and I don't understand why that would break your sad little heart. Didn't you spring out of the womb confused about the concept of fresh air?" He spoke with an arrogant expression that wasn't completely out of place on his handsome face. James leant around him to share a look with the other two boys.

"Fuck off Black, the sun was shining on the morning I was born. Birds tweeted, choirs sang and the world was made infinitely better." Marlene flicked her hair over her shoulder and turned to the other two boys, "How are you two then, Remus, Peter?" She smiled at them pleasantly.

The thinner of the two laughed and gave her an easy smile, "Fine thank you Marlene, how's your summer going so far?"

"Perfectly marvellous thank you Remus, all the better for seeing you." She beamed at him and then turned to the boy who must be Peter and winked. "How you doin', Pete?"

Peter flushed and nodded but didn't say anything, instead he looked down at his shoes.

James laughed, "No need to babble on so much Pete, let other people talk for once."

Lily laughed, causing the boys to look at her. Remus looked at James curiously who jumped and then said quickly,

"Ah, yeah, yeah, sorry, Lily this is Peter, Remus and Sirius," he said, clapping a hand on Sirius' shoulder, "And this is Lily. Marlene's friend." He added meeting her eye before looking away quickly.

"Hi there." She said, waving a hand at them. Marlene snorted when Peter waved back, but Lily smiled at him. Remus nodded but Sirius looked at her with a furrowed brow.

"Have we met before?" he asked.

It took quite a lot for Lily to keep a straight face and a calm tone, "No, I don't think so. But Marlene's probably mentioned me before."

"Right." He said curtly. "That must be it. Maybe I've seen you on facebook or something." He relaxed his brow and looked away from her.

"Probably." Lily mumbled. She had decided that it was a good thing he had puked in Marlene's mouth if it meant that this was the first time she had had to see him.

"Should we- er- get going then?" James asked, sounding a bit anxious.

Marlene looked at him quickly and nodded, "Yes I think so."

She stood up and grabbed Lily's rucksack off the floor and made a move towards the door. The rest of them followed her out the door. Lily caught up with her at the edge of a car-park with only a handful of cars in it. The sun was still out, but it was edging towards the horizon.

"Was it just me or does he not like me very much?" Lily muttered to Marlene.

"Yeah, he can be a bit gruff sometimes. Don't worry about it." Marlene advised. Then she turned and looked at Lily with a big grin.

"What?" Lily asked, thrown off by the suddenness of the mood change.

"I'm just happy to see you." Marlene said, grabbing her arm and pulling her closer. They walked the last few metres to the car with their arms interlocked.

When they reached the car, Lily gave a laugh.

"How are we all fitting in that thing?" she asked Marlene who had turned and was looking at the boys who were slowly following them, with a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun.

"Oh we'll fit. We always do, somehow." She said carelessly, not bothering to look at the small green car she was leaning against.

Lily looked up at her dubiously.

"Okay, whatever you say," she said, turning to the boys who had finally reached them, bags in arms, James with the car keys in his hand, "but I am _not_ sitting in the boot."

"Okay" Marlene said in a tone that gave Lily the idea that she wasn't really paying any attention to her.

"Marlene." Lily said sternly.

"Lily" Marlene said mockingly.

"Marlene!" Lily said, more distressed now.

Marlene just winked at her.

**Hiya, just wanted to pop up and say thanks again for reading! It's so lovely getting reviews. This is my first WIP so I was worried it would be super difficult, but so far so good! I feel I should warn you that the updates are only so quick because I'm on summer holidays. As soon as September comes along this shiz will slow waay down, sorry. **

**x**


	5. Chapter 5 - The House

**Hellooo there. So, apparently The Vomit Guy story is amusing. I wanted to point out that that's not even that far-fetched a story. That's just how nutty freshers' is. I know someone who's friend's flatmate (bit of a tenuous link, but I'm told it's completely true) who brought a girl back and they were 'you-knowing' and she suddenly got up and grabbed her stuff and left and he switched the lights on to find himself and his bed and walls all covered in heaps of blood. That story sort of inspired Sirius and Marlene's embarrassing one. There's very little that inspired this chapter, other than your reviews. Xxx Thank you for reading. **

Chapter 5

The Potter's beach house was insane. With eight bedrooms, a pool house and pool, in-house bar, and full sized snooker table, it was incredibly fancy and the most pretentious place Lily had ever set foot in. And she had been inside Petunia's room at least nine times in her life. It was difficult to imagine exactly what an ordinary family of five would want with all this space and all this ostentatious-ness, especially as it was so far away from civilisation that there was nobody anywhere around that could be impressed by it. It sat on a cliff about thirty metres above a small cove with a beach made of pebbles and rocks and although the house was an artificial addition to the coastline, it seemed to belong where it was, in amongst the thick bushes and the pale cliff-face. It was huge but not imposing and clearly expensive but not externally flamboyant. However fancy the inside was, the exterior was simple and classic, in-keeping with the small houses and fishing cottages of the village further down the coast.

The drive from the coach station to the house had taken an hour and a half, although it felt longer for Lily, squashed in the front with Marlene and two of her bags on her lap, and even after they had reached the Potter House it was another ten minutes to get down the driveway. This sort of ridiculous, frivolous private wealth was something that Lily thought only existed in dreams and eighteenth century France. But apparently, in twenty first century Cornwall, there was a house that embodied everything that Lily imagined when she thought the word 'rich'. James had just waved a hand around and said they should make themselves at home as they had come in the front door (actual oak double doors), hardly looking at the pristine interior that had Lily spinning around in wonder.

James' friends had taken his suggestion literally and had run upstairs to fight over rooms and Marlene had gone with James into the kitchen. Lily was still standing in what could only be described as the vestibule, not quite believing that she had gone from her parents' three bedroom semi-detached house to this maritime mansion in less than twenty-four hours.

"Lil?" Marlene asked, popping her head back around the corner from wherever the kitchen was, "are you alright?"

"I- I think so. It's just-just-" she stuttered, eyes wide, moving over to meet Marlene but getting stuck on the painting on the wall, "it's just so rich." She half whispered, feeling bad for being so overwhelmed.

Marlene laughed and Lily blushed.

"Aw, Lil, so sweet. You should probably go and claim a room before the boys spread out too much." She said, nodding her head towards the staircase that curved its way down the wall to her right.

Lily nodded and made her way to the staircase. She was standing with her foot on the bottom step when suddenly James appeared, as if out of nowhere.

"Can I help you with your bags?" he asked politely, reaching a hand towards her suitcase.

Lily had to laugh. Apparently the mansion came with a butler too.

"Yes, alright. Thank you very much." She smiled at him as he grinned and picked up her bag. He pretty much ran up the staircase with it, even though it was about twenty kilos. When she reached him, he was leaning against the banister, not looking at her. She could see that he was visibly panting.

"That's quite impressive." She said, smirking at him, even though he was still gazing down the hallway.

"Well," he sighed dramatically, clearly attempting to hide just how out of breath he was, "You know." He said just as dramatically.

She laughed and he turned to look at her, eyebrows raised, his half grin fading slightly.

"It would have been even more impressive if you had walked up the stairs like a normal person and not nearly died." She said before starting off down the hall.

"I didn't nearly die," he objected, half frowning "I'm fit." He said childishly.

"Yes, yes you are." She said condescendingly, reaching over and flicking him under the chin.

"Unbelievable," He grumble, "In my own house."

"Yeah, but what a house. If I were going to be ridiculed, I could only dream of being ridiculed in a place like this. It's insane." She said, looking down towards the front door and having her eye caught by a chandelier instead. An actual chandelier. Indoors. In a private home. She wasn't ashamed to let her jaw swing open.

She heard James laugh, but her eyes were on the light fitting.

"Shouldn't you give that thing back to a production of Phantom of the Opera or something?" she asked, looking at James. He spun around and looked at it and laughed.

"I wish. Mum hates it, but dad refuses to get rid of it because his mother picked it out when they first bought the place. She gave it to them as a wedding present." James said casually, reaching up to run a hand through his hair.

"Wow. How quick did they buy this place for that not to be an embarrassingly late present?" Lily asked, wondering about whether etiquette mattered when you were that rich.

James laughed again and grinned at her but didn't answer.

"What?" she asked, noticing him staring at her.

"Sorry," he said quickly, looking away. He started walking down the hall again and she followed, "Yeah, well the house was a wedding present from my dad to my mum, so that thing," He nodded back to the chandelier, "was here before they got married."

"Wait, seriously? A wedding present?" Lily's jaw was swinging again.

"Yeah." James looked away and Lily saw his cheeks go a little bit red.

"Wow." She said slowly, "Your dad got your mum a house when they got married." She whistled. James just nodded silently.

"All my dad did was get my mum pregnant when they got married." She muttered.

James snorted and looked at her, the grin back on his face and larger than before. Lily smiled back at him, glad to not have made him feel too uncomfortable. As much as it was weird for her, it must have been weird for James too, having people come into his home – _one_ of his homes, she corrected herself – and have them make assumptions about him and his family.

"So is this my room then?" Lily asked as they came to a stop.

"Yes," James nodded, "I normally let that lot choose whichever they like, but I thought that this one would be best for you. It's in between mine and Jon's so I thought it would be a good way to make things that bit easier. If Jon's being a nuisance you can hear and go and sort him out, and if you're being a nuisance I can hear and come and sort _you_ out." He grinned at her and she nodded, only half grinning back. She had almost forgotten that she was here to work, not to just hang about like his friends were. Talk about feeling singled out.

"Right. Okay then." She smiled and turned to push the door open. She let James go through first with her suitcase and then followed him into a large yellow room with a, not entirely out of place, four-poster bed in the centre. The bed-spread was white with large daisies splashed across it and the wardrobe was a soft cream colour. Instead of a window there were two glass doors leading out onto a small balcony.

"Is it alright?" James asked in a small voice, looking at Lily nervously. She realised that she had the fish-out-water face on again. She quickly dropped it and smiled at him.

"Yeah of course, it's lovely," she said quickly, "It's just Wow." She said, hoping he would understand what she meant even though she was less than extensive with her vocabulary.

He shrugged modestly and made for the door, "Marlene's in the kitchen if you wanted to go down, or you could stay and unpack or you could do whatever. I'll be- I'll be with the boys." He said shortly before disappearing down the hall, not waiting for Lily's nod. She sat down on the bed and kicked her shoes off. She turned her head to look out of the window. She could see the sea just beneath the cliff top the house rested on. It was a calm sort of grey, the waves little white tips flopping onto the beach. Not ideal beach weather but typical of a British summer. A beach day was probably inevitable with two children to entertain. She turned her head to look at the door ahead of her. It would be so easy just to stay here and watch the sea and hide, but what would that achieve? You never achieve anything by being timid. She stood up and took a breath. Then she went downstairs.

She found Marlene making a mess of an omelette in the kitchen about ten minutes later. She had gone downstairs only a few minutes after James had left but had had to try and find the kitchen and then on top of that had had to deal with the wonderful distractions that exist inside a mansion. She quite daringly broke the neatly arranged balls on the snooker table before hurriedly putting them back in that perfect triangle shape. She had never in her life played snooker, but her dad sometimes watched it on TV and she had always like when the players took their first shot and made the balls spin about the table madly.  
She had poked her head into the dining room briefly, and had stood ogling the books in the library for longer than was polite. She shook herself and moved away when she heard the crowd of boys heading downstairs.

The kitchen was at the back of the house, overlooking the pool and just in sight of the little cottage that had been labelled the pool house. It had one of those large fancy marble islands in it and a large electric cooker where Marlene was failing to show any culinary prowess with a frying pan.

"Is it meant to smell like that?" Lily asked, hopping up onto a stool behind the island and watching with her head resting on one of her hands as Marlene scratched at the pan with a plastic spatula.

"Yes, of course it is, this is what a healthy omelette smells like." She snapped back sarcastically, coughing into her elbow, "Could you open that window for me?" she nodded at the window over the sink. Lily jumped down onto the cold tiled floor again and walked around to fling the window open.

"Why are you trying to cook anyway?" Lily asked, leaning back against the island, watching Marlene fan at the black smoke coming off the frying pan.

"Because," she said through a tea-towel as she waved her arms around ineffectually, "James is never going to make anything," she took the tea towel away from her mouth and started whipping it about in circles, "and if I go home I'd have to eat my mum's food which really," she threw the tea-towel down and walked around to sit on a stool, "is worse than anything I could have made here." She nodded towards the frying pan that was still sitting on the heat with the remains of an omelette slowly burning into the pan. Lily reached over and turned the hob off and moved the pan into the sink.

"I think I'd rather die than eat your food Marl." She muttered, wrinkling her nose and turning the tap on. She flicked it off when the pan was full.

"I think with the way I cook, those two aren't mutually exclusive." Marlene grumbled.

Lily turned and looked at her. "Did you just burn yourself?"

"Literally or banter-ally?" Marlene said, sullenly, leaning on her hand.

It took Lily a second to work out what she meant. It had been a while since she had had to interpret Marlene, "The – er – the second one. Although that's really not a word Marl." She added, frowning at her.

"Sorry Miss, I'll never use it again." Marlene said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Why so glum chum?" Lily said, leaning over to put the kettle on and then settling back against the counter.

"I'm not really glum." She said sadly.

"No, you're downright depressed. What's hap-uh-taining in Marlene world?"

"That's not a word Lily." Marlene said mockingly. Then she sighed and smiled, "I'm not glum, it's just not going to be all that fun with you being all the way over here while mum's going to try to keep me busy all the way over at home."

Lily laughed, "Marl, I'm pretty sure we'll see each other every day," she soothed, and then she grinned and leaned forward to pinch her on the arm, "especially as I know that you are about to launch your attack on Sirius."

Marlene didn't react enthusiastically to Lily's manic grin, instead she frowned and rubbed her arm where Lily had pinched her. "I'm not going to attack him." She grumbled, frowning.

"No, I know you're not Marl, I'm just teasing." Lily said relenting. She said apologetically, "I didn't mean it like that Marl, you know I didn't, it's just that you've been going on about him for so long I can only presume that you are _not_ going to let this opportunity go."  
Marlene's grumpy face contorted as she tried to hide a smile.

"Maaarl, come on," Lily moaned, "don't be so lugubrious."

Marlene looked up at her thoughtfully, not smiling but no longer pouting. "Lugubrious."

"Lugubrious: adjective; looking or sounding sad and dismal." Lily spoke clearly as though reading from a dictionary.

"Good word." Marlene nodded decidedly.

"I learnt it last week." Lily grinned.

"Is it on the wall?" Marlene grinned back, sitting up a bit straighter and leaning forward.

"Is it heck," Lily snorted, "You know how slow I am at getting round to things. I still haven't put cunnilingus up yet." She said, lowering her voice slightly and leaning into her friend.

"What? How can you not have put it up? It's a brilliant word! A brilliant thing some might say." She wriggled her eyebrows and smirked as Lily blushed.

"Oh my days Marl, don't be obscene." Lily pursed her lips lightly in an attempt to not laugh and looked away from her embarrassing friend.

Marlene started laughing, "Oh I'm sorry Lil, did you not claim to love it just weeks ago?"

Lily groaned and closed her eyes, "I didn't know what it meant when you first said it!" When Marlene just laughed harder Lily opened her eyes and glared at her. "I may be inexperienced, but at least I don't turn into a puddle of slime every time a certain someone comes into my eye-line."

"I do not turn into a puddle!" Marlene cried indignantly, "I just go soft and alluring." She batted her eyelashes and pulled quite an impressive duck-face.

"Alluring?" Lily laughed incredulously, "How is swearing and being mean alluring?"

"You just don't understand the allure when you see it darling." Marlene stuck her hand out as if she were holding a cigarette, making Lily laugh even more, "_He _understands, he feels it in his bones." She sighed heavily and dramatically and then flopped down onto the counter.

Lily was still laughing a little too uproariously when the boys walked into the kitchen. At the looks on their faces she lost it again.

"Are you alright?" James asked, half laughing and half concerned about what these was happening in his kitchen.

Lily nodded in amongst her giggling fit and Marlene just smiled widely at the four of them.

"What's happening?" Sirius asked, looking away from Marlene's smile to Lily's bright red face and watery eyes.

"We were, um, we were-" Marlene started to speak confidently but then she met Sirius' eye and her lips quivered and she had to look away. She met Lily's eye and they both snorted with laughter again.

"We were talking." Lily said, using a breath she had been working up to speak quickly and loudly before collapsing back into short little gasps of laughter.

"About what? What is that funny?" asked James, a little bewildered.

"It's not that funny. Not really. It's really good though." Marlene was suddenly very chipper. Her strangely wide smile had returned.

James and Sirius were still looking at the two girls with expressions of confusion and arrogant amusement, respectively, and Peter was still standing in the doorway nervously, so it fell to Remus to ask the obvious question.

"What is?"

Lily snorted again and then sobered up as Remus looked a bit offended. Marlene however didn't skip a beat in saying loudly and proudly, "Cunnilingus."

Lily snorted again, and this time Sirius joined her. Peter gave a belated laugh but James sort of froze and looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Remus raised an eyebrow and spoke clearly in his next question.

"Pardon?" It was a strange word to hear from a teenager and it reminded Lily that this world she was in was full of strange people who would never do something so ill-mannered as say 'what' instead of 'pardon'.

"What a wonderful word." Lily sighed, more calmly now. Her fit of laughter had subsided and left her with a red face and bright eyes and a faint sense of embarrassment.

"You are such a nerd." Marlene sighed reach out to pass a hand over Lily's fringe.

"Not your best rhyme, babe." Lily wrinkled her nose and let herself be petted.

"I tried," Marlene proclaimed dramatically, "but alas I do not have the experienced vernacular that you do, my dear."

"Well obviously." Lily nodded. She stood up straight and turned to pull a mug off the mug tree next to the kettle.

"What are you two on about?" James asked, shaking his head, "Did those omelette fumes go to your heads?"

Peter, still standing near the door giggled, and Lily turned around and smiled at him before answering.

"No, we've always been this nutty don't worry, it's nothing new."

"Right," Sirius said matter-of-factly, "So what are you on about?" He sat on the stool beside Marlene and stared intensely at Lily with a half smirk on his face. She smiled back and then turned back to the cup of tea she was making.

"We collect weird words." Marlene said cheerfully, turning to look at Sirius straight on. He raised an eyebrow at her and she nodded.

"Good words," Lily corrected, "not weird words." She spooned the tea bag out and dumped it on the draining board.

"Yeeeah," Marlene agreed thoughtfully, dragging out the word to an almost uncomfortable length, "but most of them are pretty weird too though." She continued grinning at the back of Lily's head as it dipped and her shoulders shook once.

Lily turned back and saw Marlene sandwiched between Sirius and James quite happily. Remus had joined Peter who had finally come full into the room at the larger table that was further back. Lily grinned as Marlene winked at her.

"True."

"And -" James started hesitantly, "And that- _that_ word is one of the words?" he raised an eyebrow and cocked his head and Lily was struck with his similarity to a puppy.

"Yes." Marlene smirked, "It's pretty much lily's favourite word ever."

Lily blushed and set her jaw. "Shut up Marlene." She said tersely, sipping her tea.

"You preferred it when I was lugurgrious didn't you?" Marlene bit her lip and flicked her hair as Lily rolled her eyes.

"No," she tried not to be condescending, she really did, "I preferred it when you were lugubrious."

Marlene sat up a bit straighter and rolled her eyes back at her friend, "Same thing."

"No it's not," Lily frowned as Marlene stuck her tongue out, "The whole point of the word wall is that they're each different and wonderful."

"Word wall?" James asked slowly and sceptically, as if it was an entirely foreign concept.

"What the hell is that?" Sirius asked, scoffing.

"Lily's bedroom wall." Marlene said quickly, "It's full of words."

"You should see it, it's starting to look really cool." Lily grinned, nodding at the two less than impressed faces, and then beamed widely at Remus who was smiling.

"You know Ginge," Sirius said, leaning forward and putting what seemed to be his signature smirk back on his face, "it's only been a few hours, are you sure you should be inviting me into your bedroom?" He clearly thought he was being incredibly smooth, and Lily saw Marlene's smile drop a bit and James for some reason shuffled about on his chair.

Lily breathed quickly out her nose, not quite letting it become a snort, and kept her smile in place.

"Of course I am. My bedroom is open to anyone who wants it." She said pleasantly, "Especially considering I'm not there right now." She continued, "Although," she couldn't help herself from continuing further, "If you were to want to go into my room upstairs then you're more than welcome. The view is lovely." She added.

Sirius' expression seemed frozen in place for a second, as were James' and Marlene's. Only Remus and Peter moved; Peter to turn his head to look at Remus for clarification and Remus to shake his head in amusement.

Taking advantage of the momentary silence, Lily asked, "Do you have any milk in? It's not really a proper brew if it's black."

"Uh – um – yes – er – I mean no." James stuttered, trying to answer quickly to make up for the fact that he didn't realise she was talking to him.

"Right, okay. Is there a shop nearby or anything?" Lily asked looking from James to Marlene who was still looking a little bit subdued.

"Not really," Marlene said absently, "but there's one by me, so you could pop in when you take me home." She said turning to James.

"Right, okay, I'll- uh – I'll do that then." James said uncertainly, looking from Marlene to Lily.

"Good, it's getting quite late and mum'll have a fit if I'm not back by ten." Marlene said as she hopped off her stool. "I will see you tomorrow, pet." She said with a smile, walking round to pull Lily in for a hug.

"See you tomorrow." Lily said as she let her go.

"Well we might as well go with you," Sirius said casually, "there's very little of interest round here without you."

"Aw, Sirius that's so sweet." Marlene said, slightly startled.

"I didn't mean you." He said bluntly, smirking at her. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Of course not," she muttered, "Arse."

They left the kitchen arguing and James followed them. Remus and Peter stood up and nodded at Lily before following.

She was left standing by the sink in an empty kitchen with her black tea and the foul smell of burnt eggs.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Village

**Hello! Just wanted to say hi and to say, just in case you don't know (sorry if you do) a chip butty is a sandwich with chips in it. (Chips in the British sense.) That's pretty much all the need to know information for this one. See you on the other side! **

**x**

Chapter 6

The sun woke Lily in the morning, falling across the room through the balcony doors. She hadn't closed the curtains before going to bed, so the sunrise was startling enough to stir her from sleep. She woke up squinting at the room around her listening to the silence of the house and the waves on the beach outside, thrumming like a heartbeat. The bathroom was somewhere down the hall but Lily really couldn't be bothered to find it. Her pillows were too soft and the sun too warm on her face.

Then a door slammed somewhere outside this softly lit wonderland and Lily sighed. Really the bathroom mission couldn't be put off and if someone else was up, then maybe she should be too. She rolled out of bed and pulled her slippers on. In the hallway she could hear noises from the kitchen and the voices of the boys. She found a large shiny bathroom just at the top of the stairs and then went back to her room to get dressed. Even with the boys making such a noise somewhere in the house, the upstairs was still quiet. Coming down the stairs was like coming down from a cloud and into a party. The secluded silence was entirely broken by the clanging of cutlery and loud laughter.

She found her way to the kitchen by keeping one hand on a wall and walking. She passed through several rooms, none of which she had seen last night, and several windows, out of which she could see the view from the front of the house. The driveway seemed longer than before and the huge green lawn seemed greener. The sky was a more pleasant shade of blue this morning, no more hinting at rain that it did at snow, with the clouds in it floating somewhere along the horizon. In a conservatory Lily found herself in that seemed to be situated on the side of the house, she had a full view of the sky stretching from each horizon and found herself feeling a little lost. Even inside she could see the full expanse of the world and wasn't sure exactly what she was doing in it. And then she heard more clattering from the kitchen and moved on.

On walking into the kitchen, shining metallically in the morning light and full of a sort of pleasant smoke, Lily found it impossible not to laugh. Remus had a comically large chef's hat perched on his head and Peter had a frilly apron pulled tightly around his plump frame, while James and Sirius were sitting at the table in the corner with their feet on chairs and a large glass of cold orange juice in front of each of them, the condensation visible from the doorway.

"I didn't realise slave labour was still in fashion." She said smirking slightly, looking from the two boys by the stove to the two boys lounging about.

Sirius laughed shortly and Peter joined him. Remus nodded at her and smiled as she moved forward into the kitchen. James simply fell off his chair.

They all turned to look at the boy sprawled on the floor. Lily covered her mouth with her hand, so as not to be seen laughing out loud at James' idiocy but the boys seemed not to share her desire for subtly. They all burst out laughing and Sirius reached out and kicked James' shoulder as he tried to get up.

"Oh piss off, would you?" James groaned as he plonked himself back down on the chair.

"If only we could all be that graceful in the mornings." Remus said to Lily with a wry smile before turning back to the pans sizzling with food. She laughed and gave James the dignity of not looking back at him to see his reaction, instead moving forward to climb onto a stool behind the island.

"Morning." Peter beamed at her as he slide a plate full of eggs across to her. She smiled back at him.

"Good morning. Is this for me?" she asked, aware that there was a stack of clean plates sitting next to the frying pan, waiting to be filled. It didn't seem entirely fair for her to be served first.

"Well of course." He replied before turning back to help Remus, completely ignoring the complaints from the two boys at the back of the kitchen.

"What?" James said indignantly just as Sirius whined,

"Don't of course her, we've been waiting ages!"

"You've been waiting for about a minute, shut up and wait a minute more." Remus rolled his eyes at them.

"That's right." Peter agreed, somewhat smugly. Lily thought he looked as though he was about to stick his tongue out at them.

James and Sirius's voices echoed around the kitchen all the more loudly for being ignored by Peter and Remus. The abuse finally stopped when Remus and Peter carried food over to them, along with their own plates. The silence of teenagers eating is a silence so great it can never be described, but for the moment Lily basked in it. It seemed that silence with this four was like rational thought with Marlene; it did sometimes happen when completely necessary, but the other party did not find it enjoyable or totally tolerable. This Lily discovered when the noises from the table erupted into a crashing of dishes on the floor. Sirius and James, it turned out, had been playing fork-football with a stray tomato. The juice from the poor fried thing had stained most of the table cloth and the flesh of the thing itself was now lying sadly on the floor along with James' plate of eggs and bacon.

"Aaargh" Sirius and James groaned holding their hands out to each other like Italian street vendors, "Look what you did!"

Peter laughed at them and Remus cracked a smile before looked somewhat concerned. Lily chose a position half-way between the two of them, asking with a wide smile,

"You know, it won't clean itself up."

Her words interrupted the two boys who had broken out into a tussle at the table. James nodded at her a bit more seriously than the occasion warranted, but Sirius laughed,

"Isn't that what you're here for, ginge?"

Lily raised her eyebrows at him.

"To make you act in a civilized manner? I think not." She said delicately, "You can clean up your own messes I'm sure." She shook her head and stood up to carry her dish to the sink. She rinsed it down and placed it on the draining board.

"Is there anything I'm needed for today?" she asked, and although her question was directed mostly at James it was Peter who answered. That probably had something to do with the fact that James was once again distracted by trying to punch Sirius in the balls while Remus commentated.

"I don't think so. We were planning to just hang about here." He said, smiling at her. It was quite a wide smile actually, disconcertingly so.

Lily nodded, half frowning, "Right, o-okay then. I'm gonna head down to the village then. Ring me if you need me." She added before dashing out the door, leaving Peter smiling widely, Sirius sitting on a groaning James and Remus who was calling them both idiots whilst pretending his knife was a microphone.

She found her way back up to her room and pulled on shoes and grabbed her handbag, still with her purse and phone in it. The front door closed behind her with a satisfyingly loud slam just as she thought about whether she would need a key. But the sun was shining on her and there was a breeze blowing the trees that drew her away from practical thoughts and down towards the ocean where it lay at the foot of the cliffs. She stood on the sand and let the sound of the waves wash away the silliness of breakfast and let herself be entranced by them for far longer than was sensible. Then she looked at the time and climbed back up to the cliff-top path. The path didn't technically pass through the Potter property, but it was close enough that you could see into the windows of some of the rooms at the top of the house. Lily made a mental note to close her curtains as her eyes passed over her own small balcony.

It took almost two hours to walk to the small village of Porthead, but Lily didn't mind the walk. It was the first time in a long time that she had been truly alone. There is nowhere in an inland city where it is possible to be completely secluded but here, as she rambled across the Cornish coastline, she was sure she could be completely ignored by the world until she chose not to be.

There is a reason that Cornwall has some of the world's most beautiful beaches alongside a long history of shipping fatalities. It is because of the wind that comes in off the Atlantic. The cool spray reached even to the footpath at the top of the cliff, leaving Lily feeling lucky the wind was blowing the tide in and not out, otherwise she would be lost to the sea by now. By the time she reached Porthead she had been thoroughly blown about and was completely ready to be protected from the wind by the sturdy buildings that make up the sweet little tea shops, the Fish and Chip shop and the rows of brightly painted terraced houses, sitting just beyond large imposing sea walls.

It had been four years since Lily had visited Porthead with Marlene and her family, but for all it had changed, it might as well have been five minutes ago. The same groups of old ladies sat in the same old tea shops sipping from the same cups with their eyes cast out upon the beach full of the typical collection of tourists. Young children rolling about in sandcastles and then running back to their brightly coloured towels and beach tents, the deck chairs with the same red and yellow striped canvas, the rocks and the caves where Lily remembered spending hours looking for crabs, the little blue wooden huts just waiting to be filled with tired parents attempting to pry swimming costumes off the young children. Porthead was not a large place, but in the summer it swelled with tourists and the need for them was reflected in the way the place accommodated them. There were at least three guest houses on every street, there were signs for the camp site and caravan park everywhere, there were little shop selling buckets and spades on every corner, and on the hill just a little way away there was a large hotel peering down over on the people of Porthead.

Lily remembered when the hotel had been built, how Marlene's parents had been in a long line of people from in and around the village who were protesting the 'scar on the landscape' that was now the main reason anyone came to Porthead. They had driven all the way from Manchester to Cornwall just to sign a petition and attend a village meeting. The hotel had started construction a week later, after the petition failed to meet the necessary number of signatures, and a year later when it opened nobody could full remember why they had objected to the increase of tourism in the first place. The trees that grew around the tree helped it blend in and now it was no more a scar than any of the other large houses on one of the surrounding hills.

At around midday, after a morning of strolling through the few streets and then clambering over the rocks in the far side of the bay, Lily collapsed into a deck chair. There was nobody around who she obviously had to pay for the privilege and nobody came and asked her to move, so she sat there until she was disturbed, happily watching the tide come in.

When she was disturbed she was so pleasantly relaxed she didn't even mind the handful of sand that a playful hand tipped over her head. She jumped as the cool sand found its way down the collar of her t-shirt and then squinted up at the person standing over her, blocking her sun.

Marlene, Lily had decided a few years ago, somehow always managed to look like she was wandering home after a night out. She had a habit of wearing scruffy clothes with incredibly nice ones and never really doing anything with her hair. It was almost convenient for her when it came to actually doing the walk of shame since nobody would ever suppose it was what it was, but on a sleepy beach in the mid-day sun it was rather strange to find a girl with a black t-shirt tied in a knot to show off her stomach, a glittery blue mini skirt, and doc martins, topped with a navy hoodie, unzipped and dangling off her. Her hair was appropriately dishevelled, hanging loose over her shoulders but with a definite sense of 'recently mussed' to it.

"Hey." The bedraggled looking Marlene drawled as she plopped herself down in the deck chair next to Lily. Her smile fell into a gentle smirk as Lily raised her eyebrows at her friend.

"What have you been up to?" Lily wasn't entirely sure she wanted an answer, given the furtive looks her friend was giving to a boy further down the beach. He had turned bright red under his already-very-red hair and glanced away quickly.

"Oh nothing really." Marlene replied distractedly, her eyes still on the boy.

"Who's that?" Lily grinned, letting her sunglasses slide down her nose to wiggled her eyebrows at Marlene.

Marlene looked a bit startled as she realised Lily was looking at her so suggestively. She didn't quite turn red, but she couldn't quite rid her face of her slightly smug expression.  
"Oh that's no-one, just Fabian."

Lily laughed. It was never no-one. "Fabian, eh?" she said cheekily.

"He's just- oh shut up." Marlene finally blushed and rolled her eyes at her friend. "We snogged last summer and I was just saying hi. I thought it was the polite thing to do."

Lily snorted, "I would love to live in your world. I don't think I could ever be so casually flirty with someone I'd gotten off with."

"I didn't get off with him," Marlene frowned, lowering her voice slightly, "we just snogged."

"And that is not getting off?" Lily asked dryly, pushing her sunglasses back up her face.

"No." Marlene said firmly, swinging her legs across the sand, "_Snogging_ is snogging, getting off is, well, the whole nine yards." She said emphatically, not quite meeting Lily's eyes.

"Why can't you just say sex?" Lily asked, apparently more boldly than Marlene expected since she jumped and spun around to clamp a hand on her mouth.

"Lily!" Marlene exclaimed.

"Wha?" Lily asked from behind her friend's hand.

"There- there are children!" she half-whispered.

"They're all the way over there!" cried Lily, waving a hand towards the three little children who were running in and out of the sea, giggling.

"Yes, but they are still children!" Marlene said indignantly. When Lily raised her eyebrows at her she added so quickly the words almost bled into each other, "Whose mother is the sister of the previously mentioned boy."

Lily started laughing and Marlene groaned, "Oh come on Lil, would you shut up, please. You _know_ this is a small world. There's only so many options." She finished in such a practical tone, Lily snorted.

"Of course, I'm sorry, I forgot that you only have limited waters to tread in." Lily said, shaking her head.

"Exactly, now shut up please." Marlene said with a tone of finality that Lily suspected the woman in question might be looking over at them. She said nothing else, but shook her head again, laughing quietly.

"Do you want some chips?" Marlene asked suddenly, and with the suggestion came a strong desire.

"Oh yeah, I could murder a chip butty right about now." Lily moaned.

"Oh good," Marlene grinned, "fetch me a battered sausage while you're there." She said nodding her head towards the little chip shop that sat at in amongst the tea shops.

"Why, afraid you'll meet another relative of someone you once snogged?" Lily laughed as she clambered up out of the deck chair.

"No, I just saw Sirius up on the prom and I don't think I'm going to be able to get up as gracefully as you, I might embarrass myself in front of him." She said wryly as Lily climbed up off the sand where she had just fallen.

Lily rolled her eyes and bit back a response. She dug in her purse for her bag and then stalked off across the sand. She had left her shoes with her chair beside Marlene and so it was barefooted and covered in sand with her clothes all askew and her hair completely messed up that she ran into Marlene's friend Fabian.

She was standing waiting for their food, trying to subtly use the mirror behind the counter to re-do her hair when a tall boy with a mop of ginger hair and plastic flip-flops started talking to her.

"We're not related are we?" he asked as he watched himself try to brush sand out of his hair.

"I'm sorry?" Lily asked, confused.

"The hair." He clarified, grinning at her before running his hands through his own.

"Oh right," Lily said, giving a polite laugh, "uh – no, I don't think we are."

"Nah, I didn't think so," he said, "haven't seen you around before. Although," he added wryly, "with the number of Weasleys in the world that doesn't really mean much." He grinned at her as if he expected her to know what he was talking about.

"Right." She said, smiling uncomfortably.

"You're not from around here are you?" he asked, his tone and grin not losing any of their enthusiasm.

"Uh- no, I'm not sorry." She answered, her tone apologetic.

"Right. Course. If you were that joke would have landed. But then," he added thoughtfully, "it's probably a good thing you're not because then I would probably hitting on a cousin and that could get messy."

Lily snorted and his eyes glinted.

"I'm Fabian." He said, holding out his hand.

Lily shook it, noticing how warm it was as she did, "I'm Lily."

"Oh," he began as his eyes lit up "you're-" he stopped and turned red almost immediately. It was quite impressive really.

"Marlene's friend, yeah. She mentioned you, by the way." She added. Then she clamped her jaw shut and wondered why she hadn't submitted herself for a lobotomy yet. This was the second time in a week she was being awkward with an attractive boy.

"Oh so this is awkward for both of us then, good." His face was grim, but his voice teasing.

"Yeah," Lily laughed as he nodded sagely, "Sorry." She added.

"Ah, it could be worse," he sighed grimly, "You could be someone who _doesn't_ know my relationship history." Then his face split into a grin and Lily was laughing again.

"Yeah, or worse still," she said, waving a hand in the air for reasons she wasn't entirely sure of "I could be someone who _does _know your relationship history but _doesn't _think you could do better." She shrugged as he blinked at her before bursting out laughing. For the sake of their friendship, she was hoping Marlene would accept that the pay-off was worth the insult.

"And how is it that you do think that?" he asked, folding his arms and grinning at her curiously. It seemed that he was incapable of pulling any expression without putting a grin into it.

"Well, it's not that Marl's not great, because she is," she clarified defensively, making sure she didn't leave this boy she had met five minutes ago thinking she disliked her best friend of eight years, "it's just that she has a very specific kind of person in mind and really there's no hope for anyone who tries to fill that position. They just end up sad and alone." She shook her head sadly, feeling pleased when he started laughing again. Then he winked at her.

"Speaking from personal experience?" he asked, leaning in conspiratorially.

"Well of course," Lily said, humouring him with a hushed tone, "why do you think I let her drag me around places? I'm the most sad and alone of all her friends."

"Well then." He said, suddenly very stern, "We shall have to ensure we pull you out of this awful place. How often do you think you will be able to get away from her?" he asked, his quick turnaround to a formal tone making Lily laugh again.

"Quite often, I'm not actually staying with her." she told him.

"Oh?" He asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. Lily noticed that he did it smoothly, even though it was something she had decided long ago was a talent for only the most suave of people, and not for flip-flop wearing ordinary folk.

"Yeah, I'm actually technically working this summer."

"Working?" he asked, pulling his face into a disgusted expression, "In summer? Whatever is this nonsense?"

Lily laughed before answering, "Well, it's not going to be that bad I suppose. I'm meant to be working for the Potters, sort of like an au-pair. Well," she added quickly, "they said nanny, but I have a high opinion of myself." She grinned at him.

He snorted softly and shook his head. "So you're staying with the Potters? All the way out there?" he seemed genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, it's actually really nice" she said, trying not to sound too defensive. She definitely hadn't been here long enough to be defensive about it.

"Well yes of course," he said politely, "but it's just so far away." He groaned, rolling his eyes. Lily laughed the second she realised he wasn't about to start insulting her hosts. "These posh-oes" he added, "they all want the big house by the sea, but nobody wants to be near the people who actually live here."

"They're not all like that surely?" Lily asked.

"No, of course not, I'm exaggerating, oh that's me!" his face split into the widest grin Lily had seen yet as he span toward the counter. He picked up the carrier bag and then turned back to Lily, "it's just that with them only being here for a few months in the summer they're not really members of the community, that's all, so all we locals," he cringed at the word 'locals', "sorry, awful word, all we really know about them is that they're rich and have summer holidays. It's not the best situation for happy neighbour relationships, you know?" he said as Lily picked up her own food, wrapped in paper and polystyrene.

"Yeah I guess." She said pensively, and then added, glancing sideways at him, "I suppose it doesn't help relationships when one of the summer folk snog you and leave you."

He turned from the window he was looking out at to look at her with a pleasantly surprised expression on his face.

"My, my Lily, haven't we got friendly." He shook his head in amazement.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." She grinned at him as they both headed out of the shop.

"Yeah, well," he replied, his tone teasingly indignant, "You know-"

But he was cut off before he could finish his sentence by another tall boy with ginger hair running into him from behind.

"Come on Fabe, we're dying out here!" he cried, messing up his hair. Fabian screwed his face up until the boy stopped.

"Sorry Lily, this is my stupid brother Gideon." He said dryly, his grin coming out flat at the edges.

Gideon, who apparently hadn't noticed Lily turned to her and grinned. It must be a family trait, she decided.

"Hello there, nice to meet you." He greeted her enthusiastically and went to take her hand, but seeing that it was holding down a parcel of chips he just patted the back of it instead.

"Uh, hi, nice to meet you too." Lily laughed.

The two boys were clearly (?) twins with their button noses and matching grins, but the difference in their demeanours was comical. While Fabian's grin was large and friendly, and his attitude comfortable and unassuming while Gideon's grin was almost manic and he seemed completely unsatisfied with standing still. He bounced up and down on the balls of his feet and swung his arms by his side and seemed to be tapping his teeth together while he was smiling.

"She's a friend of Marley's." Fabian added, less enthusiastically, and then looked at Lily in a self-aware-sitcom sort of way as Gideon's grin became open mouthed and he quite literally laughed in his brother's face.

Lily joined in with Gideon's laughter and nodded when he turned to her with an inquisitive grin.

"Ha! And have you teased him sufficiently, Lily?" he asked her, raising his eyebrows.

Fabian groaned, "She doesn't have to Gid, I think you've done it enough for the whole world." He shook his head miserably. His grin was so seriously diminished Lily felt that she really had to step in and save in.

"It's not that bad really." She said. Both boys looked at her with the same expression of comical disbelief. "Well it's not! It's only Marley." When their expressions didn't change she laughed and shook her head, "She hates awkward situations, she won't let it be awkward for long. She'll probably start making jokes about it the second she sees you."

Fabian snorted, "But she didn't! She came over and said 'hi' and it was awkward and then she pretty much ran away." He exclaimed.

"Oh well then you're pretty much screwed." Lily said apologetically, as Gideon laughed again. She reached over and patted Fabian on the arm awkwardly, trying not to spill her hot load over him, "Welcome to the sad and alone club."

Fabian just groaned again.

"As lovely as it is to find a fellow mocker," Gideon said, nodding at Lily, "we do need to get going. They're dying of starvation over there!" he said dramatically waving his hands in the direction of a small red-headed family, the same one from the beach, only the three children were now sitting sedately at the bottom of the steps leading down to the beach, just under the shade of a large umbrella that a tall man was fiddling with.

"Alright," Fabian nodded at his brother who took this as a cue to grab the plastic bag of food and run back at full speed to his sister and her family, "It was nice meeting you Lily." Fabian grinned in farewell.

"And you. I'll tell Marlene you say hi!" she said before turning away, just catching the beginning of another groan.

She found Marlene still sitting in her deck chair, staring out at the sea.

"Do you think jelly-fish just want to be loved?"

Lily didn't even think about that one before flopping down beside Marlene, "Yes. All hearts desire love."

"Even jelly-fish hearts?" Marlene asked curiously, accepting the food parcel that was handed to her.

"Of course." Lily nodded. "Even jelly-fish hearts. Even ex-boyfriend hearts too." She added casually, picking up her chip butty and taking a massive bite out of it.

"Sorry?" Marlene frowned at her.

Lily pointed to her mouth and chewed for a few seconds before getting out, "I met Fabian in the chippy."

"Oh." Marlene nodded and turned back to her chips.

Lily looked at her. She seemed relatively unperturbed by the news. "So it's not going to be awkward then? With you and him I mean." Lily asked, thinking of Fabian's red face at the mention of Marlene's name.

Marlene turned to look at her grinning , "What with Fabe? Nah, don't be daft. Why?" she suddenly turned suspicious, "have you set him in your sights?"

Lily spluttered on her chip, "Wha- in my sights?" she repeated, "what are you on about? He's not a deer!"

Marlene just shook her head at Lily's indignation. "And that is why you are a sad little virgin Lily dear." She smiled as she looked at her.

"Hey!" Lily said, the indignant tone coming out again.

"What?" Marlene looked up, concerned.

"I am not sad, nor am I 'little' thank you very much!" Lily cried, her tone firm but her face split by a grin. When Marlene laughed she threw a crust at her.

"Little Lily. Sad Little Lily." Marlene laughed. Lily threw more crusts.

They stayed on the beach, half swallowed by deck chairs until well after they had finished their lunch. By three o clock Marlene was looking to convince Lily to go home with her for dinner and by four o clock she had succeeded. They pulled themselves up at about half five, with Marlene trying to push Lily down for comic effect, or so she claimed, and then ambled up to Marlene's parents' house. Both Sharon and Dylan McKinnon were there and it was about two hours of catching up before they made any kind of move to the kitchen, and so by the time Lily made a move to leave it was getting quite dark. One of the reasons Lily had always gotten on so well with Marlene's parents was that they were both very interested in their daughters' lives, something which Lily loved to indulge and watch Marlene squirm over, but another was that they treated Lily like she was just another of their children, so when she said she would be walking back both of them had protested, with Marlene's dad jumping up to get the car keys and Marlene's mum pressing Lily to the sofa with offers of another cup of tea.

By the time Lily got back to James' house, the front of the house was dark. She told a quick lie to Mr. McKinnon about having a key so as not to keep him out too late and then snuck around the back once the break-lights on his car had disappeared down the driveway. It was a testament to Lily's luck that Remus was still awake, and a downright miracle that he had forgotten to shut his balcony doors. Thorough them, and the curtains being blown away from them by the night air, Lily could see a little of the commotion that she could clearly hear. All four boys seemed to be in Remus room, messing about before bed, she presumed.

She took a deep breath before calling up to them, "Hey! Hey you lot!"

The noise from the bedroom died down slightly, but nobody came to the window, so Lily winced and screwed up her eyes and shouted again, "Hey, it's me Lily. Outside. I need you to let me in."

She opened her eyes to Remus' head poking through the doors. She grimaced up at him as he looked down at her.

"You know, traditional courtship demands you throw rocks at my window, not shout at me." His tone was sarcastic, but Lily could see even from the ground that he was smiling.

"I'm sorry," she shrugged and held up her hands, "There's only so many ways a girl can get a boys attention these days."

He gave a laugh and then asked mock-scornfully, "And this is the best one?"

She grimaced apologetically, "I didn't want to ring and wake anyone."

"So you shouted instead?" It was more the logic than the disbelief in his voice that made her feel ridiculous.

"Yes." She grumbled, "I saw your light was on. Can you let me in please?" she asked impatiently

"Don't you have a key?" he asked, clearly not understanding that night, even in the summer, is not a warm time.

"Yes I do I just really wanted to do an updated version of Romeo and Juliet." She called up sarcastically, "'Remus, oh Remus, wherefore art though Remus, if I were but a key in your hand as you opened the door to your beloved Lily flower.'" She fell to one knee and held her arms in the air to him.

He laughed and shook his head "I don't think that's quite right, you know."

"Well there's not much about Romeo and Juliet that is to be honest." She shrugged as she stood up again, "Now could you open the door for me please?" she whined.

"James went down about a minute ago." He answered grinning wickedly.

She let out a groan of exasperation "Ah! And you couldn't have said? Good grief." She shook her head.

"Sorry." He called as she turned away and walked towards the back door where she could see clearly now James was standing waiting for her.

He stepped back as she came in and wiped her feet on the mat.

"Are you alright Lily? You've been gone all day." He asked concernedly.

She smiled at him, "Yeah I'm fine, I'm sorry, I just, um, I was down the beach with Marl and then went back to hers for tea and lost track of time. I'm really sorry." She said quickly.

She only now thought that maybe he had had some things that he needed to say to her, what with him technically being her employer and his brother and sister arriving tomorrow, but instead she had run off to the beach. It wasn't the best impression she could have made. But he didn't seem to have anything to say about that.

"Oh, okay. I was just a bit worried that's all." He muttered, not looking at her.

She grabbed his arm as he moved to go back upstairs, and he looked up at her. "I really am sorry," she said, biting her lip, "I didn't mean to be gone the whole day and to worry you, and I don't know if there's anything you needed me to do, but I didn't do that either so I just-" she cut herself off and took a deep breath, "I'm sorry is what that babble was. Sorry." She said again.

He nodded and gave her a small smile.

"It's fine, I was just really worried."

"Not worried enough to call?" She pulled her phone from her pocket and saw that there were still no messages.

"Well, I thought you might be doing something important." He muttered.

"So you were worried I was doing something important?" she could feel a smile growing on her face as a blush was growing on his.

"No, I wasn't sure- I mean, you might have been- I didn't know what you were doing, but I was worried that maybe you had made a friend or something and then gotten lost or-" he stopped and looked up from his feet and straight at her. "I didn't really know what I thought. I'm sorry, next time I'm worried, I'll ring you." He said.

She gave him a small smile and nodded, "Thanks. And thanks for worrying," she added, "It's nice to be cared about."

He nodded and smiled back and then turned away. She followed him out of the kitchen, but on the way her foot crunched something into the floor. She looked down and saw the dishes from breakfast still sitting where the boys had knocked them to the ground.

"What the-" she exclaimed, stepping away quickly.

James stopped and turned back to her. "Oh yeah, we couldn't agree who should clean it up so none of us did it." He said casually, running a hand through his hair.

Lily just looked at him, frowning in confusion.

"What?" he asked.

"Boys." She said breathily, shaking her head.

He grinned, "Yeah, but we're nothing compared to Alice and Jonathon."

"You're not?" Lily asked worriedly. For the first time she was thinking about the children she would be looking after.

"Oh no, they're much worse. Think me and Sirius, but ten years younger and hyped up on sugar." He winked, and then seeing her expression laughed.

"Oh no." Lily groaned.

"But don't worry," James stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, "they don't get here until tomorrow. That's a whole twelve hours away." He reassured her.

She just looked at him and groaned.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Morning

**Hello! Sorry it's been a bit of a while since the last chapter, but to be fair I did (for reasons I'm not totally sure on) double the chapter word count in the last chapter and so now I don't feel totally comfortable giving you anything less than 6000 words. So there's that. **

**Thank you for reading and thank you for reviewing, it's so cool that there's real live humans reading this. I hope you enjoy!**

**x**

Chapter 7

Lily's breakfast the next day was a much quieter affair than that of the day before. She came downstairs at about seven, finding the kitchen in double-quick time and sighed deeply before cleaning up the mess that was still sitting on the floor.

She ate alone in the kitchen, with her eyes fixed on the sea. It took about an hour before the others stirred, in the quietest hours of the morning when the sky was still deciding what colour it wanted to be. It was barely eight by the time she had finished, so she treaded back through the house to fetch her shoes and slipped out the back door and down to the beach. She made sure to slip her phone into her pocket too, not wanting to meet an irate James on her return.

The sand was cold and the water colder, but she still stood there at the water's edge letting the waves lap at her toes. She wasn't entirely sure why she was so fascinated with the sea, but she put it down to her being a city girl, unfamiliar with being so intimate with the uncontrolled and uncontrollable water.

The sun had risen properly by the time her phone rang, and the sky had settled into a startling sapphire blue. It was James ringing, she saw as she pulled her phone from the pocket of her hoodie, probably concerned for her whereabouts once again. She smiled as she answered the phone.

"Hey, don't worry I haven't gotten lost, I'm just down on the little beach." She said, turning away from the water and walking back to where she had left her shoes.

His voice was calmer than she expected when he answered, "Yeah, I know I can see you."

She looked up and squinted at a figure standing at the top of the cliff. The figure waved and she waved back.

"Oh yeah. Hello." She smiled, even though he probably couldn't see the details of her face from where he was.

"Hi." He said, and she was sure from the tone of his voice that he was smiling too.

"Are you going to come down and join me or am I about to be told off for wandering?" she asked, swinging her shoes in her hand as she squinted up at him. The sun was behind him so she couldn't make out anything but his silhouette, but she saw him shake his head.

"No, neither actually. I need you to come up so I can talk to you about Alice and Jon."

Lily nodded and then remembered that physical indicators didn't work that well on the phone.

"Of course, give me five minutes."

"Why?" he asked, sounding bewildered, "You're right there."

"Because that path is dead steep. It takes me about thirty seconds to get down and about five minutes to climb back up. Really there should be some sort of pulley system so no-one has to kill themselves to get back to high ground. Eugh." She made a noise of disgust as she wiped her feet on the tough grass before stuffing them into her shoes, still covered in a fair amount of sand. She heard James laughing from the other end, but she was now focusing more on not falling back as she scrabbled her way up a sand dune and onto the thin sandy path. She hung up the phone and shoved it into her bra so it wouldn't fall out of her baggy pocket.

"Don't fall." James shouted down unhelpfully as his head slowly came into view at the end of the path.

Lily sighed loudly, "Thanks, but I think I'd rather if you gave me something more helpful than pathetic advice." She called up to him, huffing and puffing.

"Like what?" he asked curiously as she finally reached the top and came to stand next to him.

"Like a hand you moron." She answered sardonically. "Don't shout at me not to fall, when falling is clearly not a desirable option. Give me a hand instead!" She was sounding a little bit outraged, but she couldn't stop her face breaking into a smile.

He smiled back at her and then held out his hand to her.

Her smile dropped slightly and she rolled her eyes again. She gave him a low-five and he gave a laugh and then they turned to walk back to the house.

The other three boys were sitting outside by the pool on sun loungers with drinks and a large plate of pancakes sitting on a table between them.

"You don't do anything by halves do you?" Lily frowned at the tottering pile of pancakes. It could easily have fed about ten people.

"Nah, not our style." Sirius smirked, leaning back with his hand behind his head.

"Pancake?" James asked enthusiastically, thrusting the plate under her nose as she sat down between Peter and James.

Lily shook her head and smiled at him, "I've already eaten."

"Right." He said, surprise showing in his eyebrows raising slightly and the corners of his smile dropping. He placed the plate back on the glass table carefully and then leant back and ran a hand through his hair.

"So you wanted to talk to me?" Lily turned away from the other and looked at James, and when he looked at her a little blankly she added, "About your brother and sister."

"Oh yeah, right, sorry." He gave a little cough and then turned to her with a more serious expression. The sudden change of mood made Lily laugh. James' lips twitched and he pulled a face.

"Hey, this isn't going to work if you can't take me seriously." He pouted. Lily laughed again as he stuck his bottom lip out and then squeezed her lips together when he frowned.

"Yes, of course. I'm very sorry Mr. Potter." She said sternly.

He gave a snort, "I see what you mean. It is ridiculous. Anyway," he took a deep breath and looked at her finally with some sincerity, "The little ones arrive into Penzance from Paddington just after five."

"Right." Lily nodded, then frowned, "On their own?"

"Yeah," James said casually, and then seeing Lily's look of concern explained, "It's a direct train from London and Mum and Dad saw them off so all they had to do was just stay on the train until they got here. They both have their phones in case anything happens though, it's all fine."

She nodded and relaxed slightly, now that she no longer had images of little children wandering around the countryside running through her mind.

"Okay, so what exactly are we going to do all summer? I mean, there's only so much you can do around here." At Lily's words James gave a snort and a sardonic grin.

"Yeah, there's really nothing to do here, it's pretty rubbish." The bitterness of his tone surprised Lily who frowned but didn't say anything, just listened as he continued speaking, "But whatever the two of them want to do you can do. Mum and Dad are pretty relaxed about what we get up to."

"Wait, anything? Like completely anything at all?" Lily asked, slightly excited by the idea of such freedom. Heaven knew she had never had that sort of thing when she was their age.

"Yeah, well within reason. Don't leave the country or anything." James laughed.

Lily smiled, "Is there anything particular they want to do, do you know?" she asked, hoping he would be able to give her some sort of an idea for what to do with them.

He frowned for a minute, and then said, "I think Jon will probably want to play football or something at some point but I haven't a clue what Alice will want to do. She's a girl. She's not that into messing about like Jon is." He shrugged and reached for a pancake which he folded and shoved in his mouth.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Right, so what you're really saying is just to wing it."

James nodded and chewed. "ee ull ee easy." He said through his mouthful of food.

"Why did you hire me if this is going to be so easy?" Lily asked, ignoring the slight spattering of food that landed on his lap, not skipping a beat being well used to the language of the full mouth. Marlene too was a chatty eater.

"Because I have to look after this lot." He said simply nodding his head towards the other three who now seemed to be having a burping competition.

Lily wrinkled her nose and nodded, "And you lot clearly aren't capable of looking after anyone else."

She had said it seriously but James still laughed. "Something like that." he agreed, and then added, "They both object to having a nanny though. They think they're too old for it." He explained when Lily looked at him quizzically.

"How old are they?" she asked, pulling her knees up onto the sun-lounger and crossing her legs.

"Jon's fourteen and Alice is eleven, so they do technically need adult supervision, but I wouldn't want to be the one to tell them that." he grinned, clearly proud of his little siblings for being so rebellious.

"And you lot don't count as adults." Lily smirked, raising her eyebrows.

"And the _some _of us _do _count as adults have to run around those of us who _don't_." James said, his face showing how unfunny he found that, but that didn't stop Lily laughing at him anyway.

He shook his head, barely stopping short of pursing his lips at her as she giggled.

"So I'm not the only nanny in the house then." She laughed, and James shook his head smiling.

"Yeah, we should probably have nanny meetings or something." He said cheekily, grinning.

Lily chuckled, "More like a nightly drinking session, I'll bring the gin" She said dryly, "Especially if you've spent the day shepherding _them_ about." She grinned as James nodded his head seriously.

"Yes, you're right, although we might need something stronger than gin. Maybe two gins." He suggested, with a deadpan face.

Lily started laughing again and he joined her after a couple of seconds.

"I don't even drink." She said still laughing.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that!" he said, leaning back and raising a hand, half folded into a pointed finger.

"Yeah, I'm the dull one." Lily said, smiling a little embarrassedly.

"No, it's not dull, it's incredibly wise." James said in a tone that suggested he was impressed, but the fact that he was smirking made Lily think he wasn't in the least.

She glared at him softly, and muttered, "Shut up."

"No, seriously, I'm sure being sober is a great thing when everyone around you is upchucking." He laughed loudly as she groaned and put a hand to her head.

"Oh yeah, I love being the permanent designated driver!" she groaned again and shook her head. "The number of times I have had Marlene call me at two in the morning because she can't remember how to get home is beyond a joke at this point."

"Not the most considerate of friends is she?" James asked dryly. Clearly he had also experienced Marlene's arm-twisting.

Lily snorted, "Nah, she's alright. She's just over zealous about things, she's harmless really."

"Yeah, true. But she's dead annoying." He seemed unable to resist adding the last bit. Lily laughed again.

"Okay," Lily said straightening up, her laughter dying down, "So the gist of what I need to know is that your brother and sister do not want me here and that they can do whatever they want, right?" she looked at James expectantly who pressed his lips together and nodded. Lily shook her head again smiling, "Right, so if that's all, does that mean I have the rest of the day free?" she asked hopefully.

James looked a little taken aback. He blinked at her and then stuttered out, "Oh, yeah – um, yeah of course – I mean, you have to be back before them, but yeah, you – you're free." He finished with a nod.

Lily smiled wider and nodded back at him, "Great. So what are you lot up to today?"

The second question was not any more expected than the first one. "Oh we - um – we were – I don't – we haven't discussed it yet." He said lamely, shrugging.

Lily nodded, "Okay, well you have fun with that. I'm going to meet Marlene down in the village. I'll make a point of being back by four?" she asked and he nodded so she continued, "Do you think you'll need a hand with dinner?"

Once again James was confounded by one of Lily's questions. "Um, we haven't thought that far ahead, I don't think." He mumbled going a bit red.

"Okay," Lily said slowly, "Do you want me to pick something up for dinner?" she asked, smiling as he nodded his head quickly and looked utterly relieved. "Okay, I'll grab chips or something. I can put them in the oven to keep warm for when you all get back or something."

He nodded dumbly again so she presumed it was okay. She smiled again and stood up.

"Okay, well I'll see you all later then." She said, nodding at the other boys as she walked passed them on her way into the house to get her things.

She emerged a few minutes later with her bag and said another goodbye before heading down the footpath, trying to keep her eyes on where she was going, but unable to draw them too far away from the rolling mass to her right.

When Lily arrived at the end of the footpath, at the top of a steep street leading down towards the main street of the village, she took a second to take in the view. It really was very strange for her to see such a small place. It was by far the smallest place she had ever been to. The only comparison she could think to make was the town her grandparents lived in Northern Ireland, Ballycastle, which had a population of only five thousand people and hardly any major chain shops. Petunia had always hated visited Nanna and Bampa McCollum.

Lily was sure her sister would hate this place even more, with its independently owned supermarket and lack of cinema or shopping centre. But Lily was quickly deciding that she loved it. It was the sort of place where you knew your neighbours, not just because you were nice enough to want to but because your families had lived there forever so of course you know your neighbours. She understood completely why Marlene had been so unhappy moving all the way to Manchester. They were two different worlds. Although, Lily thought as her eye was caught by a figure on the promenade, there were some similarities.

Marlene was clearing visible running full pelt across the paved stones, moving so fast that Lily wasn't sure she wasn't passing straight through the people moving quickly out of her way. Her brown leather bag was banging against her hip and her jacket was once again handing off her arms. Lily watched as Marlene came to a skidding stop outside the phone booth outside the post office. She nearly threw herself inside and a moment later Lily felt her phone buzz. She pulled it out frowning.

"Something happen to your mobile Marl?" Lily asked without any introduction.

"Lily!" Marlene panting on the other of the phone completely ignored what her friend said and instead rushed out in one long breath; "MrsRogersaskedmetodirecttheconcert!"

Lily took a second to see if she could figure out what her friend was on about. When it became clear that she was never going to make sense of that mess she said, "Didn't quite catch that Marl."

She heard Marlene sigh loudly on the other end before saying very condescendingly said, "Mrs Rogers asked me to direct the concert."

After a second Lily shook her head and said, "No, that still means nothing to me, Marl."

Another sigh from Marlene. "Where are you? This is going to cost me a lot of money if you're going to be this slow."

Lily gave an indignant laugh, "I'm not being slow Marl, you're being obtuse! But I'm coming now, I'm up on the hill. I'll be two minutes." She hung up before Marlene could sigh at her again and started walking down towards her friend.

When she reached the promenade Marlene was no longer anywhere in sight. She stood at the end, casting her eyes around searching for an energetic brunette in amongst the contented tourists. What she found instead was two ginger heads bobbing about just above the wall to her right. She took a few steps over to the walk and looked down. Beneath the wall were two lanky young men who Lily had recently become acquainted, one of each side of her current best friend. Gideon and Fabian, it appeared, had taken it upon themselves to protect the people of Porthead from the insanity that was Marlene McKinnon.

From up on the wall in what just happened to be the perfect position to watch the spectacle, Lily could both see and hear perfectly what was happening. She leant forward and rested her elbows on the wall as she watched.

"Oh, no, you two- Argh! – no! Oh Come on! Guys!" Marlene was grunting as she tried to wriggle out of the arms of the two boys.

"Marlene, you really should know better." Gideon was saying with a grin and a shake of his head.

"Yeah, I mean causing havoc up there like that, there has to be consequences." Fabian said, grinning like his brother and neatly dodging an elbow in the ribs.

"Oh, so it's up to you two oafs to provide appropriate consequences, is it?" Marlene asked haltingly and bitterly, still struggling.

"No, but we felt that as dutiful citizens of this here fine village we couldn't let you going round scaring people." Gideon said with a sardonic tone and, still grinning, gave a wink to his brother who nodded back.

"Well of course we did, Gid, we're fine upstanding gentlemen." Fabian agreed, grinning.

"And as fine upstanding gentleman we have to fulfil our duty of keeping the peace." Gideon continued.

Marlene groaned, "Are you two going to do your stupid twin thing all the time? It gives me a headache." She had stopped struggling now and was hanging limply between them.

The twins grinned identical grins at each other and in unison dropped Marlene's arms so suddenly she took a step back and promptly fell over. And then the boys spoke.

"But." Gideon said lifting his shoulders and then freezing as Fabian spoke.

"Of." Fabian nodded solemnly.

"Course." They said in unison. Gideon unfroze so that they could nod together and each hold a hand out to Marlene. The routine happening so quickly it could have been one person speaking

Marlene groaned again before grabbing both of their hands and letting them pull her up off the sand. "I hate you two." She grumbled.

"Well that's lovely, but that doesn't solve the puzzle of why you were behaving like a lunatic." Gideon said, giving Marlene an inquiring look. She looked from him to Fabian who was wearing a look exactly the same. Clearly unnerved she took a step back.

"I was trying to find Lily."

Lily snorted, but none of the players in the drama on the sand noticed.

"Why couldn't you have done that at a normal, human speed?" Fabian asked, and Lily couldn't help noticing that his exasperation was quite affectionate. Marlene, on the other hand didn't seem to notice anything since she just rolled her eyes and scowled.

"Well, it should be much easier now anyway, since you are so much calmer and reasonable than you were five minutes ago." Gideon said happily, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"It wasn't that hard to do in the first place," Lily called down, making the three of them jump and swirl their heads up to look at her, "It's just that she's such a lunatic she was too impatient to wait."

"Lily!" Marlene cried gleefully, "You found me!"

Lily laughed as Marlene beamed up at her, "Of course I did. It wasn't hard," she added ruefully, "I could see you running about from up the hill." At this the twins turned and looked at each other proudly. "What's wrong with using your phone instead of your Tasmanian devil powers?" Lily asked, laughing as Marlene gave filthy looks at the boys.

"I forgot it." She moaned loudly, "I walked out the door with it on charge and didn't think I'd need it that badly. It's only Porthead, there's not much potential for news worthy events here, well," she added, rolling her eyes, "not usually anyway."

"You forgot it?" Lily repeated, ignoring for the moment the rest of what Marlene had said.

"I was having a moment." Marlene said flatly, putting her hands on her hips and pursing her lips.

"I bet you were." Lily muttered. The boys both snorted with laughter.

"Hey!" Marlene cried, outraged, "I've already been attacked by these two, I don't a verbal attack from you too!" Her sad face made Lily simultaneously feel bad and want to laugh again.

"Sorry." Lily called, holding a hand up.

"Good." Marlene huffed, folding her arms.

"So why were you rampaging to find me?" Lily asked, sitting on the wall and swinging her legs over to dangle beside Marlene and the boys.

"I had to tell you something." Marlene said calmly.

"What?" Lily asked, tapping her heels against the wall.

"Come down and I'll tell you." Marlene said stubbornly.

"Tell me and I'll come down." Lily answered cheekily, grinning.

"Don't be silly now Lily." Marlene said smirking.

"I'm not being silly, you're being silly." Lily answered childishly.

"Well you're-" Marlene began, but she was cut off by Lily's yelp as she was suddenly dragged down onto the beach by a pair of miscreants.

The two boys had each grabbed a leg and tugged Lily off the wall, and as she had fallen Fabian had stepped under her and caught her before she hit the sand, with Gideon stepping up behind her in front of the wall so she wouldn't hit her head. It was so practised Lily thought this must have been something they did often. It was most likely how they had ensnared Marlene, at least Lily thought, from the way that Marlene had whooped and was laughing loudly.

"Hey!" Lily said loudly at Fabian who was still cradling her.

"Hey there." He answered, grinning at her.

"No, not _hi_," she said indignantly, "Hey!" She said firmly, glaring at him.

He laughed and she whacked him on the arm. He acted as if she hadn't done anything and kept laughing. She could hear Gideon laughing behind her somewhere too.

"Would you be so kind as to put me down?" She asked dryly, trying her hardest not to purse her lips.

"Why of course!" he answered politely, gently setting her down on the sand.

She scowled at Marlene who was still grinning widely. "You can be quiet if you want."

"I'm alright." Marlene answered casually, then her face changed, so quickly and suddenly Lily thought she might have been struck by something, "Oh! You're here!" She looked partly elated and partly worried.

"Yes, I'm here. Standing on my own two feet and everything." She shot a glare at the two boys who were laughing at something together.

"This means I can tell you my thing!" Marlene said excitedly.

"A thing?" Lily asked warily.

"Oh a thing!" Gideon appeared at Lily's shoulder.

Fabian's head propped itself up on the other, "I love things! What's the thing?" it asked.

Marlene didn't seem put off by the floating heads and just continued as though this was a normal thing to happen, even though both of the boys were almost bent double to reach Lily's shoulder.

"Mrs Rogers, the local dance slash music slash acting teacher is ill!" she began gleefully. Lily was quite disturbed by how happy Marlene was at someone being unwell.

"That's dreadful." She said sympathetically. The floating heads nodded in agreement, pulling exaggeratedly unhappy faces.

"No, it's not, she'll be fine, it's just that she's old so she needs a break. The good thing about this," she took a deep breath before continuing. Lily hoped it was good, there weren't, as far as she knew, many good things about an old lady being ill, "Is that she needs someone to direct the summer concert that she puts on at the end of the summer every year without fail. Her being ill isn't going to stand in anyone's way of the summer concert. I'm pretty sure the show would go on even if she died." She added thoughtfully, "But anyway, she's ill so she asked me to direct it!" Marlene finished with a massive beaming smile.

Lily nodded and smiled, "That's great Marl." The heads nodded again.

"You don't seem enthused." Marlene said a little sourly.

The heads turned to look at Lily's face. She tried not to laugh as she answered, "I am I just suppose I don't really get how big a deal it is."

"Eugh. Tourists." Marlene shook her head and tutted. Both of the heads tutted as well.

"It's a big deal." Fabian whispered to Lily.

"It's a huge deal." Gideon whispered, agreeing with his brother.

"It's the biggest deal there has ever been in this village." Fabian's breath tickled Lily's ear as he spoke.

She grinned grimly at Marlene as Gideon spoke again too, but in a louder voice than his brother "It's the biggest deal there has ever been on this planet."

"That's true." Marlene said, nodding sagely as if the comment hadn't come from an adolescent boy leaning his head on someone's shoulder to pretend it was floating.

Lily started shaking with silent giggles and she felt the boys' heads nodding on her shoulders and saw Marlene's seriously nodding.

"It's not a laughing matter Lily!" Marlene cried, "It's going to be incredibly stressful and I could do with your support actually." She folded her arms.

Lily nodded, through her giggles, and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the heads again.

"Not funny Lily." Fabian grumbled.

"Ssso ssstresssful." Hissed Gideon.

Lily burst out laughing, shaking so much the boys had to stand up. Her shoulders were no longer a stable surface.

"I- I'm sorry Marl!" she hiccupped, "I will t-totally s-s-support you." She nodded, stuttering through her laughter.

Marlene laughed and shook her head. "Well I should hope so too. How would it look if my music director didn't support me?" she

"What? No, I am not doing that." Lily laughed, a little incredulously.

"Oh come on!" Marlene whined, "You have to!"

"No I don't." Lily argued, folding her arms and clenching her jaw.

"Lily!" Marlene whined again, but Lily just shook her head.

"No. absolutely not."

Marlene groaned.

"Are you musical then?" Fabian's pleasantly asked question was so out of place with Lily and Marlene's pouting match that Lily didn't understand it for a second.

"Wha- oh yeah, I play a couple of instruments." She said, letting her arms drop to her side.

"And it's one of her degrees." Marlene nodded proudly.

"It's not _one of_ them, it's a combined honours. I'm only doing one degree, Marl." Lily responded, clenching her jaw again, frowning at her friend.

"Yeah, exactly, so you're really good at it and this will totally count as extra experience. Wouldn't it help for that internship thingy you want?" Marlene asked, knowingly.

Lily rolled her eyes, "Not even a little bit. Now stop trying to talk me into it, I'm not doing it. I can't anyway," she added, when Marlene's face dropped to a truly sad expression, "Jon and Alice are getting here this afternoon."

That tidbit of information took Marlene by surprise, "They are?" she asked, raising her eyebrows, "What time?"

"They're into Penzance at five." Lily answered, feeling suddenly self-conscious without understanding why.

"Oh." Marlene looked down for a second before looking up again, "Maybe you could get them to be in it?" she suggested hopefully.

Lily groaned and Fabian gave a laugh.

"Personally we're offended that you didn't ask us to co-musically direct Marley." Gideon said loudly, with an exaggerated expression of outrage on his face. Fabian's face changed immediately from laughter to a matching expression.

"Yes, we're very hurt."

Lily laughed and Marlene rolled her eyes, "I was going to ask you two to be in the band, don't worry I hadn't forgotten your windy talents."

Gideon stuck out his bottom lip and nodded his head appreciatively and Fabian grinned widely and said, "Oh great!" happily.

Marlene shook her head at Lily, half trying not to smile.

Lily smiled at her, "Well at least you won't be completely alone."

"Oh hush up you." Marlene grumbled, "Come on, let's go for an amble to the rock pools." She reached forward and grabbed Lily's arm. Lily let herself be dragged and after a few steps she turned and waved to the two boys who were still standing where they had been left.

"Bye you two! See you soon! Don't drag anyone else off any walls!" She hollered at them as Marlene pulled her off at a pace that was definitely faster than an amble. They pretty much ran across the beach to the rock pools and then scampered across them to reach a little cave which was completely out of sight of the beach. It was quite dark and most of the rocks were covered in slimy moss, but Marlene clambered inside and sat herself down on a rock that was not too damp. Lily gingerly followed her, dodging drips from the cave ceiling and trying not to think about what her jeans would look like at the end of the day. The bottoms of them were still rolled up from her early morning paddle and there was a coating of sand and salt-water up to her knee. Now it seemed there would be a lovely coating of moss on her bum too. Wonderful.

"So how are you feeling about nannying?" Marlene asked when Lily had finally settled next to her.

"Fine I think." Lily said, looking out at the children scavenging for crabs in the rock pools.

"Not nervous at all?" Marlene asked in such a way that Lily turned and frowned at her.

"Well I wasn't before but now I think you're trying to make me nervous."

"I'm not trying to make you nervous, I just think you should be aware that these aren't just any children you're looking after, Lil, these are Potter children." Marlene's tone was so grandiose and mysterious Lily found it hard not to laugh.

"Okay," she said smiling, "They're Potter children. Why does that mean you have to describe them like an M&S advert?"

"Because," Marlene said slowly and clearly as though speaking to someone who was a bit thick, "I knew James as a child and he has set the standard that all the Potter children are judged by, and if I'm being honest, they're almost as bad as him."

Lily laughed, "You make it sound as if James was a complete terror."

"He was. In a good sort of way. You know, like pranks and mischief, not like violence or whatever." Marlene said, waving her hand about vaguely.

"So he was a bit like us then." Lily said. She thought she had seen a kindred spirit in him.

"Yeah!" Marlene cried, clearly pleased to have a comparison Lily would understand, "Only he was about as bad as we were at fifteen when he was about nine."

Lily became a little more serious. "Did he peak at nine?" She asked hopefully.

Marlene laughed loudly, "Oh no, absolutely not. Even though I wasn't there, I heard tales that his primary school mischief carried on. It got worse I should think, especially after he and Sirius became friends."

Lily's interest was caught by Marlene's last sentence. "They met in comp? I thought they met at uni."

"Oh no, they met, as they will tell in grand narrative style if you but ask, on the very first day of school on the bus from the train station to the school. They ended up sharing a dorm room and everything."

"Wow." Lily muttered, "It's like a more destined version of us."

Marlene grinned at her, "Nah, we're soul-mates, they're just partners in crime."

Lily grinned back and then swung her arm up around Marlene's shoulders.

"And as my soul-mate," Lily began, running a hand through the patch of Marlene's hair that she could reach, "Does that mean you will be helping me with the devil-children?"

Marlene snorted, "No. Absolutely not. They're not that bad." She added when Lily looked outraged, "I mean, they definitely have the Potter mischief gene, but you're not short of genes like that yourself." She said pointedly.

Lily grinned back at her. "That's true. I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, I grew up with Petunia, how much more trouble can they be?"

Marlene nodded and then laid her head on Lily's shoulder, "That's true, although Petunia was emotionally troubling and these two are children troubling, but yeah, it could be worse."

Lily nodded slowly "Maybe we'll just take lots of visits to Aunty Shazza, she can feed them up with cake and then they can sleep the days away." She mused.

"I wouldn't bother trying that, Mum wouldn't be any help. She's gone on a health craze and banned all forms of sugar from the house." Marlene said miserably.

"Oh you poor thing. What is Sharon thinking?" Lily asked in only partly pretend horror, "I'll have to make my own sleep-inducing cakes." She paused for a few seconds in thought before starting to speak again, "Do you think-" but Marlene cut her off.

"You can't drug children Lil, it's not really good practise."

Lily frowned, "Spoilsport."

Marlene grinned. "You could always get them to take part in my summer performance." She suggested with the most mischievous look on her face.

Lily looked at her and with a completely deadpan face said, "No, Marl, no."

"Spoilsport." Marlene muttered.

"What are you going to do for it?" Lily asked. She had no idea what the summer performance was about and so was intensely interested in the task that her friend had allowed to be placed on her shoulders.

"I have no bloody clue!" Marlene burst out, throwing her hands up, "The bloody woman has left me her notes which is a great help." She muttered sarcastically.

Lily tried not to smile at her friend's distress and instead asked, "What's in them?"

"Class lists and a mind-map of ideas for themes for the performance." Marlene said bitterly, scowling at the sky.

"Oh." Lily said quietly, biting her lip.

"Yeah. I'm pretty much doing everything from scratch." Marlene mumbled.

"I thought you were excited though?" Lily asked, pulling her arm away from Marlene's shoulders so she could turn and look at her.

"I am." Marlene began, and then stopped, biting her lip.

"But?" Lily raised her eyebrows.

"But it's just going to be really hard." Marlene admitted.

"Well, I can help some of the time when I'm free." Lily offered, knowing it was nothing near what Marlene need from her right now.

"And when are you going to be free Lily?" Marlene asked irritably.

Lily shrugged, "Well I'm free right now."

"Until when?" Marlene asked suspiciously.

"Until about four o clock. I said I'm bring tea back for when James returns with the children." She explained.

Marlene nodded and narrowed her eyes in thought. She looked from Lily to the sea, not really looking at either of them. Then she jumped down off the rock they were sitting on.

"Come on then. Let's go and be productive." She held out a hand to Lily who sighed and slid down off the rock gingerly and came to stand on a rock nearby.

"So what are we doing then?" Lily asked happily, pleased that Marlene had thrown off her glumness so quickly.

"I don't know, we need to make up a to-do list." Marlene said thoughtfully as she began to pick her way across the rocks towards the beach which was no more crowded than it had been forty-five minutes ago.

"Okay, we can – ah! - do that once we reach – eugh - solid ground." Lily said slowly and haltingly as she slipped about in an attempt to keep up with the pace Marlene had set.

"Yes, of course," Marlene called, beaming. She now stood on the sand a few metres away and was watching Lily struggle with a smirk on her face, "but first I think we should have lunch."

Lily looked up from the rocks beneath her feet to look at Marlene, "It's eleven o'clock!" She cried.

"Yes I know," Marlene said as Lily finally reached her, "and I'm starving. Come on."

She grabbed Lily's hand and started walking across the sand again, dragging Lily with her. Lily laughed and skipped for a few steps to catch up properly. She threaded her arm through Marlene's as they headed towards the deck chairs they had positioned themselves on just yesterday, wondering if there had been enough time since breakfast for her to justify getting chips.


	8. Chapter 8 - The To-Do List

**I don't know why they eat chips all the time. It's the beach I think, it's a beach thing. Also I really want some chips. Salty potato goodness. Thank you for reviewing and just being a person who exists out there and is also reading this story. You're amaze-balls and I love you.**

**x**

Chapter 8

"Right, so do you have any paper?" Marlene asked expectantly looking at Lily who was still stuffing chips into her mouth.

Even though it _was_ still barely eleven, Lily had felt that she had done enough walking and clambering that morning to be allowed to have an early lunch, especially since Marlene had offered to pay. They had walked together to the chip shop and then back to the deck chairs where they were now situated and had made their way through their cones of salty potato goodness. Lily still had a few chips left but Marlene had emptied hers a few minutes ago by tipping the crumbs into her mouth.

"Well? Come on, Ginge, I don't keep you around for your witty conversation. Paper? Pen?" Marlene asked insistently.

Lily laughed through her food and shook her head. She swallowed and said, "You could use the polystyrene."

"Yeah," Marlene said doubtfully, "It's a shame we weren't hungrier really. If we had bigger portions we would have had paper. Ah well. We'll remember next time."

Lily nodded and smiled at Marlene's ramblings, only half listening. She was searching through her bag with one hand for anything that could be used as paper. The only thing she really had was her phone and her purse, so it was a quick search.

"Isn't there a shop nearby?" Lily asked.

"There is but it's all the way up there." Marlene waved a hand in the direction of the promenade and made a face.

Lily laughed. It had been hard enough getting into the deck chairs, it was always harder getting out and it didn't really seem worth it to run to a shop that might or might not have pen and paper for sale.

"Do you have memo app on your phone?" Lily's suggestion was probably the first sensible that had been said for quite some time. They were both struck by their own stupidity for a second and then they both grinned foolishly.

"I was about to go and get a shell to carve into the cone." Marlene said simply, holding up her empty cone.

"We thought of using polystyrene carved with a shell before we thought about using our phones." Lily said in the same simple tone Marlene had used.

"We're idiots aren't we?" Marlene asked.

Lily nodded, half smiling.

"Right. Well it's a good thing nobody was here to witness that. Just you, me and the seagulls." Marlene smiled up at the birds scavenging about the bay.

Lily laughed, "Right, so what do you need to do then?" She asked, her phone ready in her hand.

Marlene took a deep breath and bared her teeth, thinking. It was a couple of seconds before she said, "I think I need to find someone willing to be a musical director, since you're so adamant about not doing it?"

"Yes, that seems like a good start." Lily said firmly, typing 'MD' into her phone's memo pages, under the heading 'M's To-Do List'. "What about a theme? What ideas did Mrs Rogers have?" she asked, turning to look at Marlene who wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"They were all really bad ones." She said honestly, "Like, 'A Day at the Seaside' and 'Under the Sea'. I wasn't impressed by any of them to be honest."

"Do they have to be related to the sea?" Lily asked, a crease appearing between her eyes as she looked thoughtful.

"Well, it's technically a charity concert, so I think she wanted to tie it to the charity." Marlene said promptly.

"What's the charity?" Lily asked, hoping it wasn't anything completely impossible like WaterAid or Cancer Research.

"Seafarers UK." Marlene answered, looking as if there was a bad smell under her nose.

"What's wrong with Seafarers?" Lily asked, grinning at the look on Marlene's face.

"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just that there's nothing that directly links to it that isn't completely naff." She groaned, leaning her head back against the canvas of the deck chair.

Lily thought for another minute, looking out at the sea. "Does it have to link to the sea or could it be linked to Porthead?"

Marlene raised her head, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Lily began, speaking slowly so as to give Marlene a chance to cut her off if she was being ridiculous, "what if the concert is more about the people giving the money to the charity? I mean, there's already a link with Seafearers since Porthead was once a port, and so why not do something that people will actually want to watch."

"What, like 'Porthead's Got Talent'?" Marlene asked dubiously, wrinkling her nose again.

"No, nothing as bad as that," Lily snorted, shaking her head, "Is it meant to be a play or a concert?" she asked.

"It's more of a concert. We'd have to pay to get the rights to a play." Marlene said, pursing her lips.

Lily smiled, "Okay, so nobody's expecting a storyline or anything, just a common theme."

"Yes Lily. That's why we're having this conversation to decide a theme." Marlene said slowly and condescendingly.

Lily ignored Marlene's tone and continued, "Why not make the theme something good but with a Porthead twist."

Marlene considered it for a moment, frowning. "Like what? Under the Sea in Porthead?"

"No, I said something good." Lily muttered.

"Well I don't know, this is hard!" Marlene objected, glaring at Lily.

"I know, I'm sorry." Lily said, "But why not something that makes it easier to use everyone involved?" she asked, starting to smile again.

Marlene still glared at her, "Don't toy with me Lily, if you have an idea give it to me."

Lily smiled, "Okay, well if you have to use actors _and_ singers _and_ dancers, why not do something to do with Musicals? And since nobody is expecting a storyline, you don't have to do it fully, you could just do a few songs from a few musicals and so long as it's done well it could be good."

Marlene considered Lily's idea for a minute, turning to look away from her friend to consider the waves on the beach and the few people playing in them.

"How about something like, 'A Night of Musicals in Porthead'." She mumbled when she finally looked back at Lily.

"Yeah!" Lily's tone was at least twice as enthusiastic as Marlene's. "You could choose a few musicals of different genres and pick out the best songs from them and that way it's a bit different and it keeps it interesting for the whole night."

Marlene's head was bobbing as Lily spoke, the brain inside it whirring as the idea took hold.

"I could do completely different styles of dance for each one, like if I do Hairspray to begin and then move onto something like Cinderella it will completely mix it up and stop it being boring or expected." Marlene stopped suddenly in her haze of ideas and excitement to slap Lily on the arm, making the other girl jump, and cry, "This is a really good idea Lily!"

Lily beamed at her. "And you're clearly having so much fun with it already." She laughed.

Marlene nodded, and then her face took on a sadder expression, "You _have_ to help me with this Lil, please!"

Marlene's wheedling made Lily's heart twinge, especially since the idea had been hers, but she really didn't want to commit to something she wasn't sure could do. "I really don't know I can Marl, I don't want to get your hopes up and then pull out at the last moment."

Marlene's disappointment quickly slipped underneath another expression as she set her jaw, "Fine," she declared, "You don't have to commit to it if you really don't think you can, but you _do_ have to help me recruit other people."

The gleam in Marlene's eye really should have worried Lily, but she had seen it so many times by now it just made her nod in inevitable acceptance.

"Okay, but I don't really know anyone other than Fabian and Gideon and you've already got them on board." She warned as they tried to pull themselves up out of the deck chairs.

"Ah, Lily." Marlene sighed, smiling sweetly at Lily, "Sweet naïve Lily. You're kind and pretty and charming. That's all I need."

Lily frowned suspiciously at her friend. "So I'm going to charm strangers into helping you with this?"

Marlene nodded, "Yeah pretty much."

Lily rolled her eyes and laughed. "Oh my days Marl."

Marlene grinned. "Now come on! We have people to see!" she cried before once again grabbing Lily's hand and pulling her across the sand.

The first person they went to see was someone Lily had already seen twice but not realised. Dorcas Meadows was a tall Asian girl with a red streak running through her hair who manned the counter at the Fish and Chip shop. She had a large friendly smile that spread even wider when she saw Lily and Marlene walk through the door. She seemed to relish the opportunity to talk to anyone, regardless of topic or amount of interest the other person had in the conversation. She and Marlene had had a seven minute conversation about fryer grease before Lily stepped on Marlene's foot and gave her a look. Marlene jumped and then started with realisation.

"Oh! Yes of course, sorry." She turned back to Dorcas, "Dor, this is Lily, Lily this is Dorcas Meadows. We were in primary school together. Mr Mayor's class." Marlene grinned at Dorcas who was smiling prettily at Lily.

"Hi." Lily nodded politely at her.

"So Dor," Marlene began, smiling at her with a smile that usually made Lily expect to be doing something uncomfortable very soon, "How's the violin going?" Marlene asked, leaning forward to rest against the counter.

Dorcas perked up a little bit at the question and smiled even wider, "Oh it's going well actually, I just passed my grade 8 theory last week."

"Wow that's really good!" Marlene said, even though Lily was certain she had no idea what that meant.

"Yeah, it was pretty difficult but Mrs Rogers helped loads with it." She said nodding as she spoke.

Marlene's eyebrows flicked up slightly and she cocked her head interestedly, "You know, it's funny you should mention Mrs Rogers," she began grinning, "Did you hear that she isn't going to be directing her summer concert his year?"

"Oh I did!" Dorcas cried, her smile replaced by a look of concern, "It's so sad! Mrs Rogers' concerts are an institution, They can't just stop!"

Marlene nodded sympathetically as Dorcas spoke and then let a small smile form on her face as she spoke, "Well actually, Mrs Rogers' isn't well enough to organise it, but that doesn't mean it's not going to go on."

Lily thought Marlene was milking it a bit, but she had rarely seen her enjoy herself more, so she let her carry on.

Dorcas leant forward, her eyebrows raising and her eyes gleaming, "Oh? Who's directing instead of her?"

"Well actually she asked me to do it." Marlene said, mixing just the right amount of embarrassment in with pride in her voice.

"Oh!" Dorcas cried, her mouth falling open in a perfect circle.

"I know, I was shocked too." Marlene stage whispered, waiting for Dorcas to laugh before continuing. She did, so Marlene continued speaking, "But the thing is Dor, I kind of want to do it a bit differently to old Mrs R, and I want to build it up a little bit."

Dorcas frowned and cocked her head to the side, letting her expression ask her question rather than speaking.

"Well, you know how Mrs Rogers always just plays the piano for and has her classes do a number, one by one," she paused and waited for the other girl to nod before carrying on, "Well, I think I want to make it a bit more professional and mix it up. I was thinking of having a band rather than just a piano."

Comprehension dawned in Dorcas' eyes and she started smiling widely again.

"Yeah, so I was wondering, would you help make up the string section of the band?" Marlene asked, biting her lip and looking hopefully up at Dorcas. She needn't have tried so hard, the other girl agreed so quickly.

"Of course I will! I've always wanted to do something for Mrs Rogers' concert, but she's never wanted musicians before." Dorcas was evidently over the moon at being involved, so Marlene nodded, told her she would text her when she would need her at rehearsals and Lily and Marlene left the chip shop with a cheery goodbye from the girl behind the counter.

They walked a little way down the promenade and then stopped when they were out of earshot of the chip shop.

Lily shook her head as Marlene turned and raised her eyebrows at her, smiling. "You could have been a con-artist in another life Marl, really. She was eating out of the palm of your hand."

Marlene laughed, "She was rather, wasn't she?"

The two of them laughed and Marlene slung her arm through Lily's as they began walking again.

"Where to now?" Lily asked.

"Hmm." Marlene hummed, looking thoughtful. Her eyes fell upon the ice-cream van parked almost out of site on a street off the end of the promenade. She grinned widely at Lily before walking them swiftly in that direction.

The window of the van was closed but Marlene rapped on it long enough that an angry face appeared when it was finally swept aside. The anger was probably not helped by the fact that the window was removed so quickly Marlene hadn't been given a chance to stop knocking, and so consequently ended up knocking on the angry person's face.

It wasn't the best start to the conversation.

"Oops!" Marlene laughed.

The boy who had opened the window did not laugh. His face was quite red beneath his fluffy blonde hair and set in a frown so deep that Lily thought that maybe that was just what his face always looked like.

"Hi there Caradoc, how are you?" Marlene beamed at the boy.

The boy completely ignored the question and instead turned his attention to Lily. "Who are you?" he asked shortly.

"Um, I'm Lily." She said quickly and uncomfortably.

"Are you a Weasley?" he asked bluntly.

Lily almost laughed, but the look on Caradoc's serious face stopped her. "No, I'm not, I'm – er – my name's Lily Evans and I'm from Manchester, I'm not from round here."

"Well of course you're not from round here if you're from Manchester." Caradoc grumbled, "And that doesn't mean you can't be a Weasley." He added defensively.

Lily frowned. "Well I'm not. I'm an Evans." She said firmly. She couldn't stop herself from adding, "And just because I have red hair doesn't mean I'm automatically a Weasley. Good grief, I'm sure the south is more diverse than that." She spoke quicker and more angrily than she meant to. "Who are you anyway?" she asked, trying to sound less aggressive.

"Shouldn't you know that, since you're the one who came knocking at _my_ door?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I didn't knock your door, this git did," Lily said, nodding towards Marlene who was standing watching them talk, "and she never tells me anything." She finished, grumbling.

"Yeah, well she's tricky." Caradoc muttered.

Lily snorted, "Tell me about it."

Caradoc shot her a little grin. Lily thought it was strange that such a small change of expression could change his looks so completely. He seemed younger and more handsome when he was not quite so surly.

"So what do you want anyway, Marley?" Caradoc asked briskly, turning back to Marlene.

Marlene smiled broadly at him, "How's that bass guitar of yours going Car?"

He looked at her suspiciously, "It's fine. What's it to you?"

"I was wondering if you want to be in the band for the summer concert." Marlene said simply, not bothering with the extra information she had supplied Dorcas with.

Caradoc thought for a moment and then nodded. "Alright. Is she in it too?" he asked, indicating Lily.

Marlene sighed and shook her head sadly. "She doesn't think she can. If she could she would be my MD but she thinks she'll be working."

Caradoc nodded.

"Was there anything else?" he asked, looking coolly from Marlene to Lily.

"Nope, just that." Marlene said happily, smiling at him.

He nodded and closed the window.

Lily turned to look at Marlene who nodded.

"He's harmless enough, just a bit grumpy. Come on, more people to see." And she rushed off again.

"But- what?" Lily said, looking over her shoulder at the ice-cream van.

"What?" Marlene asked distractedly, apparently unaware that there was anything worth questioning.

Lily frowned at her in confusion, "I just- does he live in the ice-cream van?"

Marlene shook her head, "No, he's probably just on a break, he's normally parked out by there." She nodded to the end of the promenade they were heading back to where there were bollards in front of a dead end to a road which had double yellow lines all around it.

Lily nodded and decided that this was probably just one of those small town things.

The last person they went to see was a skinny blonde girl who looked to be about sixteen. She had dirt blonde hair that she had shoved into a bun on the top of her head to keep it out of her way as she served customers from behind the counter in the Post Office.

The expression on her face resembled Caradoc's more than Dorcas' when she caught sight of Marlene and Lily. The Post Office was completely dead, the only sound coming from a whirring desk fan sitting on the window sill by the door, blowing stale air onto customers as they walked in the door.

Marlene meandered her way up to counter. The girl maintained her blank, tense look right up until the moment Marlene put her hands on the countertop and smiled widely at her. Her expression slipped down into a glare, her thin lips set and her blue eyes narrowed.

"Hello there Emmeline." Marlene said lightly, "How's your summer going?"

The casual question was not received with any kind of equivalent lightness. If anything the girl's glare became more pronounced. "Fine." She snapped shortly.

Marlene was apparently unaffected by the girl's attitude. She maintained her pleasant smile and nodded as if the girl's answer had been incredibly interesting. "And how's uni been?"

"Fine." The girl repeated, still glaring, still snapping.

Lily couldn't understand why Marlene was completely ignoring the fact that this girl did not want her anywhere within a hundred miles of her, let alone making awkward polite conversation over a post office counter.

"So," Marlene began with the same casual charm she had used with Dorcas and Caradoc, "are you still playing the drums, Em?"

The girl clenched her jaw at the use of the nickname and nodded her head once.

"That's good!" Marlene cried. Her enthusiasm was almost comical in comparison to the girl's lack of. "So would you be interested in helping out with Mrs Rogers' summer concert?" Marlene cocked her head, raised her eyebrows and leaned forward smirking slightly, a look that she evidently thought was cheekily charming but which made the girl's eye twitch.

"Not really." The girl said slowly, letting her lips pull themselves apart in an exaggerated fashion to form the words.

Marlene pressed her lips together and nodded. "Well if you're sure." She shrugged and turned away. She made a face at Lily who was still standing by the door frowning. "Come on Lil." Marlene made to pull Lily out of the shop, but Lily stepped out of reach.

"Hang on Marl, I need to – um – get some stamps." She muttered to Marlene, her eyes flicking to the girl behind the counter. She was looking at the two of them with a look that was closer to confusion than hatred, although her eyes were still narrowed.

Marlene shrugged again Lily heard the bell ring behind her as Marlene left. She made her way to the counter with sharper steps than Marlene and when she reached the counter the girl hardly looked at her.

"First or second class?" she asked before Lily could speak, pulling out a draw somewhere down by her knees.

"Um, I – um, second please." Lily stuttered. She opened her mouth to speak but the girl cut her off again.

"How many?" she looked up expectantly now, so quickly Lily was a little thrown.

"Um, just- just the one." She mumbled lamely.

"Fifty three pence" the girl said, tearing a stamp and sliding it under the glass.

Lily pulled out a fifty pence piece from her pocket and exchanged it for the stamp.

The girl put it in the till and avoided meeting Lily's eye.

"I- um-" Lily began, not sure how to phrase something that would make the girl actually meet her eye.

"Was there anything else?" the girl's voice was flat and toneless, Lily noticed. With Marlene it had been quietly incensed.

"Yeah, actually." Lily's tone, in comparison had become indignant. "I wanted to ask you why you hate Marl so much." She stood looking at the girl with her eyebrows raised.

"Because she's a bitch." The girl said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "She's worse than the out-of-towners. She added scathingly.

"Is she though? I mean, what has she done to you that you hate her so much for?" Lily asked, bewildered, wanting to defend her friend but not wanting to do it blindly. Marlene could be a bit much at times, but Lily had never known her as being anything more than passionate.

"She- Look, you don't know Marley like I do, alright, she was awful in primary school and then she left and she came back and expected everything to be so much better without so much as a hint at an apology." The girl spoke quickly and with a surprising finality, her eyes fixed on Lily's nose rather than her eyes.

Lily nodded. She didn't know much about Marlene's life in Cornwall, but she knew that Marlene hadn't been all that keen on returning every summer. Lily had always thought it was something to do with having to be so far away from her school friends, but there being conflict with old school friends also made sense.

"I'm sorry she's such a bitch."

Lily's words seemed to take the girl by surprise. She looked up from the beige countertop to finally, properly, meet Lily's eye.

"It's not your fault." She said cautiously.

"I know, but I'm sorry. The Marlene I know is lovely and clearly that's a later version of her, so I'm sorry that you had to deal with her being horrible." Lily cringed a little bit at her words, hoping that they would be enough for the girl to understand that Lily wasn't as bad as the girl thought Marlene was, and Lily's Marlene was equally not-awful.

But she didn't look like she was having her world view changed, she looked more suspicious and a touch defensive. "What's she said about me?" She asked, her voice rising in pitch.

"Nothing!" Lily said quickly, seeing that whatever happened previously was a touchy subject, "Nothing, I just- I mean, for you to hate Marlene so much she must have _done_ something, right? Or if not one particular thing, then she must have had a bad attitude or been mean or something, so, I mean, I know she's not like that now, so she must have changed by the time I met her. That's all. She doesn't really talk about people from here much." Lily tried to tag an understanding smile on the end of her little speech but she thought that maybe it was more patronising since the girl's frown returned.

"Marlene was my best friend when we were little and then suddenly she was friends with Dorcas and that lot and started bullying me. She started them on me and they carried on for the next five years." The girl didn't quite spit the words but there was a certain fire behind them, even if there was a resigned note to them.

Lily frowned. She really didn't know Marlene like the girl did.

"Well then I'm doubly sorry that my best friend was such a bitch and that she's no longer your best friend." Lily said calmly. The girl said nothing, just stared at her.

"Um- you- your name is Emmeline, right?" Lily asked, cautiously. The girl nodded.

"Look, Emmeline, I'm sorry for what Marlene did and I'll talk to her about it if you want, but she really does need you for the concert."

Emmeline rolled her eyes, "I'm sure she'll be just fine without me." She spat sarcastically.

"No, actually, she won't." Lily answered, the patient tone replaced by an impatient one. Emmeline stayed silent and let Lily continue, "Look, Mrs Rogers is ill and asked Marlene to cover for her and direct the concert, only Marlene being stupid Marlene," Lily let a bit more bite than was really necessary linger on the word 'stupid', "has been all ambitious with this and had gotten people dedicated to it who she now can't disappoint. She's promised a band and she has most of one, but what she doesn't have but desperately needs," Lily paused and looked pointedly at Emmeline, "is a drum player."

Emmeline's expression had softened slightly in response to Lily's coaxing, but she did not yet look happy.

"Look, Emmeline," Lily began again, trying incredibly hard to maintain her composure, "I know Marlene's a bitch, and yeah, you will have to spend extended periods of time in the same room as her, but she really needs you and it's not like _she_'ll be bossing you around," Lily added fairly, although the thought had only just struck her, "She's the overall director, but she's going to get a musical director to help with it all, so you'll only really have to deal with whoever she gets for that." Lily ended with an expression that she hoped was a mix between hopeful and friendly.

Emmeline took a minute to sigh and consider Lily before responding.

"Do you promise she won't be bossing me about?" she asked, anxiety clear in her face behind the mask of bitterness.

Lily nodded and spoke clearly as she said, "I promise."

Emmeline took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay, I'll do it." She spoke quietly and reluctantly.

Lily smiled widely. "Thank you so much Emmeline."

Emmeline gave a half smile, "You can call me Emma."

"Not Em?" Lily asked, guessing that it was something else that Emmeline had a deep-rooted issue with.

Emmeline wrinkled her nose and shook her head, making the bun on her head wobble. "No, I hate that. Marley used to call me that."

"Em and M?" Lily guessed.

Emmeline nodded and gave a self-conscious laugh, "It was awful."

"Yeah, that _is _awful. M'n'Ms. Where you the yellow one?" she asked, grinning.

Emmeline laughed and nodded, "I was the yellow one and Marlene was the green one."

"Green? Why green?" Lily frowned and shook her head, "She doesn't look green at all."

"No," Emmeline laughed, "She had a green coat she always wore." She explained, biting her lip.

"Oh." Lily said slowly, nodding. "Well of course. I am definitely going to tease her about that." she added, noting that Emmeline tensed up a little bit. "Of course, I might just dye her hair green when she's asleep instead." Lily added mock-thoughtfully.

Emmeline snorted and Lily smiled.

"I'd better get going, she'll probably ditch me if I don't get back." Lily said without thinking, and then caught herself.

Emmeline clocked the awkward look on Lily's face and gave a soft laugh, "Don't worry, I think she likes you." She didn't sound as bitter as she had a few minutes ago.

Lily laughed, "Well I hope so, she's been hanging about me for eight years now, either she likes me or else this is a very long ploy to have me killed or something." She shrugged, "We'll probably never know. Or," she added, turning towards the door, "_I'll_ never know. I mean if it is, I'll be dead, won't I?" Emmeline laughed again and Lily smiled too.

"Bye Lily." The girl behind the desk nodded.

"Bye Emma." Lily gave a little wave as she swung the door open.

The sun outside was almost blinding after the cool and dark, cave-like interior of the post office and so it took a few seconds for Lily to adjust before she looked around for Marlene. When she did she had to spin around a couple of times before she spotted her at the opposite end of the promenade to Caradoc's ice-cream truck, talking animatedly to someone just out of sight behind the large grey sea-wall. Lily raised her hand when Marlene looked over to her, but lowered it when Marlene's eyes widened and she quickly pushed her conversation partner away. Lily frowned and started walking towards Marlene who was still talking to the mysterious person. To Lily it looked like she was shouting at them, but considering how Lily was now only a few metres away and couldn't hear a word she thought that maybe she was whispering.

"Marl?" she called when she was only a few paces away.

"Lily!" Marlene shouted, making Lily jump violently. Marlene was only throwing her quick glances since she was still trying to shoo someone away, but in those glances Lily could see she was desperately trying to look casual and unaware. Since the other half of the time she was looking frantic and incredibly anxious, it didn't have that much effect.

Lily stepped closer to peer around the edge of the wall, "Marl, who are you-"

Marlene practically jumped on her, throwing her arms around her in a bone-crushing hug. "Lily! How good to see you! Are you alright? Did you get your stamps?" She asked, an over the top concerned look on her face.

Lily nodded warily and held up the stamp in her hand. Marlene beamed.

"Good! That's so good! And did you get to chat to Em?" she asked expectantly.

"I- uh-" Lily stuttered, taken aback by Marlene's expectation that she would have spoken to the girl who had appeared nothing but surly in front of Marlene. "Yes." She finally got out, frowning at Marlene's smile.

"And what did she say?" Marlene sang.

Lily sighed. "She said she would help." She answered, resignedly.

"Excellent!" Marlene grinned, clapping her hands together once in a large dramatic gesture.

"Marl-" Lily tried to say, but Marlene cut her off by rushing forward down the promenade and pulling Lily with her by a strong grip on her arm.

"What else is there now?" Marlene asked loudly.

"I don't know, it's your list." Lily replied, in a frustrated tone.

"Yes it is. And do I have everyone on it?" Marlene asked frustratingly.

Lily groaned and didn't answer.

"Wait!" Marlene stopped dead and accidentally managed to kick Lily in the shin with her heel that was suspended in mid-air.

"What now?" moaned Lily, rubbing her poor shin against the back of her other leg.

"I need a piano." Marlene narrowed her eyes and ran them along the promenade and across the beach, searching.

"I don't think you'll find one out there, Marl." Lily muttered.

"You're right. I should probably look for a piano player first." Marlene mumbled, distractedly. "Oh!" she cried and spun around to look back towards Lily and the space they had just walked from, one hand raised in the air. Lily resisted the urge to give her a high five. Then Marlene lowered her hand and frowned at Lily. "What time did you say you need to get back to the Potters?" She asked.

From the intensity of Marlene's stare, Lily felt as though she should have been asking about nuclear launch codes or the location of a deadly virus, not what time she had to be back for dinner.

"I said I'd be back with food for when the children get back, so I thought about four-ish."

"I'll come with you." Marlene said immediately and without explanation.

"Okay?" Lily shrugged, accepting that Marlene was not going to explain herself moments before she did.

"I need to see James about his piano playing skills."

Lily was startled. She hadn't known he played the piano, although now Marlene mentioned it, she _had_ seen a rather lovely grand piano in one of the downstairs rooms on one of her wanderings.

"Okay, what do you want to do until then?" Lily asked, turning to look once again at the beach.

"We could go back to the rock pool." Marlene grinned as Lily groaned. She walked forward to the wall and climbed on top of it.

"No more rock pools today. Why don't we go for a little stroll along the hilltop?" Lily asked hopefully, joining Marlene up on the wall and swinging her legs over the edge to hang above the sand as Marlene had already done.

Marlene snorted, "Fuck no, that's boring. Let's go back to mine. Mum and Dad are out because they're picking up Miranda."

Lily's face lit up, "I didn't know your sister was coming today too!"

"Yeah." Marlene shrugged, uninterested. She didn't seem much bothered about seeing her sister for the first time since the Easter holidays.

"Oh come on Marl, it's Mandy, you have to be happy to have her back." Lily poked her on the shoulder.

Marlene just shook her head sadly. "No, Lil, you don't understand. This means I have to share TV privileges. It's inhumane."

Lily snorted, "I'll be sure to contact Amnesty International." She deadpanned.

Marlene grinned. "Tell them how I also have to share a bathroom with her too."

"That'll get them here in double quick time." Lily commented lightly.

"Well I should hope so, this is a human rights catastrophe." Marlene's superior tone, for some reason, suddenly set Lily off into a fit of giggles. It was only a few seconds before Marlene joined her and they were both sitting there giggling like lunatics.

And then they felt hands on their backs and found themselves face down on the sand.

After hearing so recently that he had once been a renowned mischief-maker, Lily wasn't sure why she was so surprised to see James' face grinning down at her when she looked back up at the wall she and Marlene had been sitting on just moments ago. She was less surprised to hear Sirius laughing as Marlene spat out sand and was simply saddened that Remus and Peter seemed to have been participants in this. She shook her head sadly at them as she propped herself up on her elbows. Their heads floated next to James' and Sirius' and they all wore the same sort of self-satisfied grins.

"Dicks." Marlene muttered.

Lily turned to her a raised her eyebrows. "Not so funny now, is it?"  
She didn't have to be so supercilious, but she was slowly seeing the funny side as Marlene flapped at her hair in an attempt to get sand out of it. She bit back a laugh when she accidentally slapped herself.

"Yeah, but it was funny when Gid and Fabian did it because they caught you." Marlene mumbled, paying far more attention to her hair than her friend.

Lily laughed, "Yeah, it's always nice to be caught when you fall." She pulled herself up and brushed the sand of her already quite dirt jeans as she stood up.

"Especially if the catcher is six-foot tall and smoking." Marlene winked as she held her hand up for Lily to take.

Lily rolled her eyes and pulled her friend to her feet. "No fear of that then."

They both turned and looked up at the four boys who had now themselves climbed up onto the wall and were in the process of trying to throw James off.

"No," Marlene said affectionately, "no fear."


End file.
